I submitted this question to Cecil Adams about a year ago and I was told it was being closely considered by the Master for a public response but to date I’ve heard nothing. Then today I saw a photo in the news that brought it back to memory so I thought I’d ask it here: Does anyone know why the back porches on Chicago apartment buildings have been historically the same shade of grey and nothing else? For that matter, they all seem to have been designed in the same style. Was there something in the building code that regulated this? What ever happened to them?