Blowhard, Esq. writes:

As a follow-up to Paleo Retiree’s post, I put together my own montage of multistage entryways from my neighborhood. As you can see, some are more charming and inviting than others.

A quote from A Pattern Language:

While people are on the street, they adopt a style of “street behavior.” When they come into a house they naturally want to get rid of this street behavior and settle down completely into the more intimate spirit appropriate to the home. But it seems likely that they cannot do this unless there is a transition from one to the other which help them to lose the street behavior. The transition must, in the effect, destroy the momentum of closedness, tension and “distance” which are appropriate to street behavior, before people can relax completely.