Articles: Architecture
RESIDENTIALSTYLES
Learn
about the home styles in your market and beyond. Our Residential Styles guide
includes illustrations, photographs, and detailed descriptions about popular
styles.
ART DECO
The 1925 Paris Exhibition Internationale des Arts
Decoratifs launched the Art Deco style, which echoed the Machine Age with
geometric decorative elements and a vertically oriented design. This distinctly
urban style was never widely used in residential buildings; it was more
widespread in public and commercial buildings of the period. Towers and other projections above the
roofline enhance the vertical emphasis of this style, which was popularized by
Hollywood movies of
the 1930s. Flat roofs, metal window casements, and smooth stucco walls with
rectangular cut-outs mark the exteriors of Art Deco homes. Facades are
typically flush with zigzags and other stylized floral, geometric, and
"sunrise" motifs. By 1940 the Art Deco style had evolved into
"Art Moderne," which features curved corners, rectangular glass-block
windows, and a boat-like appearance. Popularized in the
United
States by Finnish architect Eliel
Saarinen, the style enjoyed a revival in the 1980s.
NEOCLASIC
A well-publicized, world-class
event can inspire fashion for years. At least that's the case with the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition in
Chicago, which
showcased cutting-edge classical buildings that architects around the country
emulated in their own residential and commercial designs. The Neoclassical
style remained popular through the 1950s in incarnations from one-story
cottages to multilevel manses. Its identifying Ionic or Corinthian columned
porches often extend the full height of the house. Also typical: symmetrical
facades, elaborate, decorative designs above and around doorways, and roof-line
balustrades (low parapet walls).
BUNGALOW
These narrow, rectangular one and
one-half story houses originated in
California during
the 1880s as a reaction to the elaborate decoration of Victorian homes. The
style then moved eastward to the
Midwest in the
early 20th century, where it remained popular until the Great Depression.
Bungalows have low-pitched gabled or hipped roofs and small covered porches at
the entry. The style became so popular that you could order a bungalow kit from
Sears and Roebuck catalog. The name "bungalow" had its origins in
India, where it
indicated a small, thatched home.
CAPE
COD
Some of the first houses built in the
United
States were
Cape
Cods. The
original colonial
Cape Cod homes were shingle-sided,
one-story cottages with no dormers. During the mid-20th century, the small,
uncomplicated
Cape Cod shape became popular in
suburban developments. A 20th-century
Cape Cod is square
or rectangular with one or one-and-a-half stories and steeply pitched, gabled
roofs. It may have dormers and shutters. The siding is usually clapboard or
brick.
COLONIAL
America's
colonial period encompassed a number of housing types and styles, including For
more information about Colonial styles, see
Cape Cod, Saltbox,
Georgian, and Dutch Colonial. However, when we speak of the Colonial style, we
often are referring to a rectangular, symmetrical home with bedrooms on the
second floor. The double-hung windows usually have many small, equally sized
square panes. During the late 1800s and
throughout the 20th century, builders borrowed Colonial ideas to create refined
Colonial Revival homes with elegant central hallways and elaborate cornices.
Unlike the original Colonials, Colonial Revival homes are often sided in white
clapboard and trimmed with black or green shutters.
CONTEMPORARY
You know them by their odd-sized and often tall windows,
their lack of ornamentation, and their unusual mixtures of wall
materials--stone, brick, and wood, for instance. Architects designed
Contemporary-style homes (in the Modern family) between 1950 and 1970, and
created two versions: the flat-roof and gabled types. The latter is often
characterized by exposed beams. Both breeds tend to be one-story tall and were
designed to incorporate the surrounding landscape into their overall look.
CRAFTSMAN
Popularized at the turn of the 20th century by
architect and furniture designer Gustav Stickley in his magazine, The
Craftsman, the Craftsman-style bungalow reflected, said Stickley, "a house
reduced to it's simplest form... its low, broad proportions and absolute lack
of ornamentation gives it a character so natural and unaffected that it seems
to... blend with any landscape." The style, which was also widely billed as the "
California
bungalow" by architects such as Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather
Greene, featured overhanging eaves, a low-slung gabled roof, and wide front
porches framed by pedestal-like tapered columns. Material often included stone,
rough-hewn wood, and stucco. Many homes have wide front porches across part of
the front, supported by columns.
CREOLE
The Creole Cottage, which is mostly found in the
South, originated in
New Orleans in the
1700s. The homes are distinguished by a front wall that recedes to form a
first-story porch and second-story balcony that stretch across the entire front
of the structure. Full-length windows open into the balconies, and lacy
ironwork characteristically runs across the second-story level. These two- and
three-story homes are symmetrical in design with front entrances placed at the
center. "Creole French," a
variation of the basic Creole design, came into vogue in southern states in the
1940s and 1950s.
DUTCH COLONIAL
This American style originated in homes built by
German, or "Deutsch" settlers in
Pennsylvania as early
as the 1600s. A hallmark of the style is a broad gambrel roof with flaring
eaves that extend over the porches, creating a barn-like effect. Early homes
were a single room, and additions were added to each end, creating a
distinctive linear floor plan. End walls are generally of stone, and the
chimney is usually located on one or both ends. Double-hung sash windows with
outward swinging wood casements, dormers with shed-like overhangs, and a
central Dutch double doorway are also common. The double door, which is divided
horizontally, was once used to keep livestock out of the home while allowing
light and air to filter through the open top. The style enjoyed a revival
during the first three decades of the 20th century as the country looked back
with nostalgia to its colonial past.
FEDERAL
Ubiquitous up and down the East Coast, Federal-style
architecture dates from the late 1700s and coincided with a reawakening of
interest in classical Greek and Roman culture. Builders began to add swags,
garlands, elliptical windows, and other decorative details to rectangular
Georgian houses. The style that emerged resembles Georgian, but is more
delicate and more formal. Many Federal-style homes have an arched Palladian
window on the second story above the front door. The front door usually has
sidelights and a semicircular fanlight. Federal-style homes are often called
"Adam" after the English brothers who popularized the style.
FRENCH PROVINCIAL
Balance and symmetry are the ruling characteristics
of this formal style. Homes are often brick with detailing in copper or slate.
Windows and chimneys are symmetrical and perfectly balanced, at least in
original versions of the style. Defining features include a steep, high, hip
roof; balcony and porch balustrades; rectangle doors set in arched openings;
and double French windows with shutters. Second-story windows usually have a
curved head that breaks through the cornice. The design had its origins in the style of rural manor homes, or
chateaus, built by the French nobles during the reign of Louis XIV in the
mid-1600s. The French Provincial design was a popular Revival style in the
1920s and again in the 1960s.
GEORGIAN
Befitting a king--in fact, the style is named for
four King Georges of
England--Georgian
homes are refined and symmetrical with paired chimneys and a decorative crown
over the front door. Modeled after the more elaborate homes of
England, the
Georgian style dominated the British colonies in the 1700s. Most surviving
Georgians sport side-gabled roofs, are
two to
three stories high, and are constructed in brick. Georgian homes
almost always feature an orderly row of five windows across the second story.
Modern-day builders often combine features of the refined Georgian style with
decorative flourishes from the more formal Federal style.
GOTHIC REVIVAL
The influence of English romanticism and the mass
production of elaborate wooden millwork after the Industrial Revolution fueled
the construction of Gothic Revival homes in the mid-1800s. These picturesque
structures are marked by "Gothic" windows with distinctive pointed
arches; exposed framing timbers; and steep, vaulted roofs with cross-gables.
Extravagant features may include towers and verandas. Ornate wooden detailing
is generously applied as gable, window, and door trim. American architects Alexander Jackson Davis
and Andrew Jackson Downing championed Gothic in domestic buildings in the
1830s. Most Gothic Revival homes were constructed between 1840 and 1870 in the
Northeast.
Greek Revival
This style is predominantly found in the
Midwest, South,
New
England, and Midatlantic regions, though you may spot
subtypes in parts of
California. Its
popularity in the 1800s stemmed from archeological findings of the time,
indicating that the Grecians had spawned Roman culture. American architects
also favored the style for political reasons: the War of 1812 cast
England in an
unfavorable light; and public sentiment favored the Greeks in their war for
independence in the 1820s. Identify the
style by its entry, full-height, or full-building width porches, entryway
columns sized in scale to the porch type, and a front door surrounded by narrow
rectangular windows. Roofs are generally gabled or hipped. Roof cornices sport
a wide trim. The front-gable found in one subtype became a common feature in
Midwestern and Northeastern residential architecture well into the 20th
century. The townhouse variation is made up of narrow, urban homes that don't
always feature porches. Look for townhouses in
Boston,
Galveston, Texas.,
Mobile,
Ala.,
New York,
Philadelphia,
Richmond,
Va., and
Savannah,
Ga.
International
Initiated by European architects--such as Mies van
der Rohe--in the early 20th century, this is the style that introduced the idea
of exposed functional building elements, such as elevator shafts,
ground-to-ceiling plate glass windows, and smooth facades. The style was molded from modern
materials--concrete, glass, and steel--and is characterized by an absence of
decoration. A steel skeleton typically supports these homes. Meanwhile,
interior and exterior walls merely act as design and layout elements, and often
feature dramatic, but non-supporting projecting beams and columns. With its
avant-garde elements, naturally the style appeared primarily in the East and in
California.
Italianate
Italianate homes, which appeared in
Midwest, East
Coast, and
San Francisco areas
between 1850 and 1880, can be quite ornate despite their solid square shape.
Features include symmetrical bay windows in front; small chimneys set in
irregular locations; tall, narrow, windows; and towers, in some cases. The
elaborate window designs reappear in the supports, columns, and doorframes.
Monterey
This style emerged in 1853 when
Boston merchant
Thomas Larkin relocated to
Monterey,
Calif. The style
updates Larkin's vision of a New England Colonial with an Adobe brick exterior.
The Adobe reflected an element of Spanish Colonial houses common in the
Monterey area at
the time. Later
Monterey versions
merged Spanish Eclectic with Colonial Revival styles to greater or lesser
extents. Larkin's design also
established a defining feature of Montereys: a second-floor with a balcony. At
the time one-story homes dominated the Bay Area. In today's Montereys, balcony railings are
typically styled in iron or wood; roofs are low pitched or gabled and covered
with shingles--variants sometimes feature tiles--and exterior walls are
constructed in stucco, brick, or wood.
National
Born out of the fundamental need for shelter, National-style
homes, whose roots are set in Native American and pre-railroad dwellings,
remain unadorned and utilitarian. The style is characterized by rectangular
shapes with (insert link side gabled roofs) or square layouts with pyramidal
roofs. The gabled-front-and-wing style pictured here is the most prevalent type
with a side-gabled wing attached at a right angle to the gabled front. Two
subsets of the National style, known as "hall-and-parlor family" and
"I-house," are characterized by layouts that are two rooms wide and one
room deep. Massed plan styles, recognized by a layout more than one room deep,
often sport side gables and shed-roofed porches. You'll find National homes
throughout the country.
PRARIE
In suburban
Chicago in 1893,
Frank Lloyd Wright,
America's most
famous architect, designed the first Prairie-style house, and it's still a
common style throughout the
Midwest. Prairie
houses come in two styles--boxy and symmetrical or low-slung and asymmetrical.
Roofs are low-pitched, with wide eaves. Brick and clapboard are the most common
building materials. Other details: rows of casement windows; one-story porches
with massive square supports; and stylized floral and circular geometric
terra-cotta or masonry ornamentation around doors, windows, and cornices.
Pueblo
Taking its cues from Native American and Spanish
Colonial styles, chunky looking
Pueblos emerged
around 1900 in
California, but
proved most popular in
Arizona and
New
Mexico, where many original designs
still survive. The style is characterized by flat roofs, parapet walls with
round edges, earth-colored stucco or adobe-brick walls, straight-edge window
frames, and roof beams that project through the wall. The interior typically
features corner fireplaces, unpainted wood columns, and tile or brick floors.
Queen Anne
A sub-style of the late Victorian era, Queen Anne is
a collection of coquettish detailing and eclectic materials. Steep cross-gabled
roofs, towers, and vertical windows are all typical of a Queen Anne home.
Inventive, multistory floor plans often include projecting wings, several
porches and balconies, and multiple chimneys with decorative chimney pots. Wooden "gingerbread" trim in
scrolled and rounded "fish-scale" patterns frequently graces gables
and porches. Massive cut stone foundations are typical of period houses.
Created by English architect Richard Norman Shaw, the style was popularized
after the Civil War by architect Henry Hobson Richardson and spread rapidly,
especially in the South and West.
Ranch
Sometimes called the
California ranch
style, this home in the Modern family, originated there in 1930s. It emerged as
one of the most popular American styles in the 1950s and 60s, when the
automobile had replaced early 20th-century forms of transportation, such as
streetcars. Now mobile homebuyers could
move to the suburbs into bigger homes on bigger lots. The style takes its cues
from Spanish Colonial and Prairie and Craftsman homes, and is characterized by
its one-story, pitched-roof construction, built-in garage, wood or brick
exterior walls, sliding and picture windows, and sliding doors leading to
patios.
Saltbox
This New England Colonial style got its name because the
sharply sloping gable roof that resembled the boxes used for storing salt. The
step roofline often plunges from two and one-half stories in front to a single
story in the rear. In Colonial times, the lower rear portion was often used as
a partially enclosed shed, which was oriented north as a windbreak. These
square or rectangular homes typically have a large central chimney and large,
double-hung windows with shutters. Exterior walls are made of clapboard or
shingles. In the South this style is known as a "cat's slide" and was
a popular in the 1800s.
Second Empire
Popular in the
Midwest and
Northeast, this Victorian style was fashionable for public buildings during
Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, but its elaborate, costly detail fell out of
favor in the late 1800s for economic reasons. Second empire homes
feature windows, molded cornices, and decorative brackets under the eaves.
One subtype sports a rectangular tower at the front and center of the
structure.
Shed
A subset of the Modern style, including (insert links) Shed
homes were particular favorites of architects in the 1960s and 1970s. They
feature multiple roofs sloping in different directions, which creates
multigeometric shapes; wood shingle, board, or brick exterior cladding;
recessed and downplayed front doorways; and small windows. There's virtually no
symmetry to the style.
Shingle
This American style originated in cottages along the
trendy, wealthy Northeastern coastal towns of
Cape Cod,
Long
Island, and
Newport in the
late 19th century. Architectural publishers publicized it, but the style was
never as popular around the country as the Queen Anne. Shingle homes borrow
wide porches, shingles, and asymmetrical forms from the Queen Anne. They're also characterized by unadorned
doors, windows, porches, and cornices; continuous wood shingles; a steeply
pitched roofline; and large porches. The style hints at towers, but they're usually
just extensions of the roofline.
Shotgun
Tradition has it that if you fire a shotgun through
the front doorway of this long, narrow home, the bullet will exit directly
through the back door. The style is characterized by a single story with a
gabled roof. Shotguns are usually only one room wide, with each room leading
directly into the next. Exterior features include a vent on the front gable and
a full front porch trimmed with gingerbread brackets and ornamentation.
Mail-order plans and parts for shotgun homes were widely available at the
turn-of-the-century, making it a popular, low-cost structure to build in both
urban and suburban settings.
Spanish Eclectic
Most common in the Southwest and
Florida,
Spanish-style architecture takes its cues from the missions of the early
Spanish missionaries--such as the one at
San Juan
Capistrano in
California--and
includes details from the Moorish, Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance
architectural styles. The houses usually have low-pitched tiled roofs, white
stucco walls, and rounded windows and doors. Other elements may include
scalloped windows and balconies with elaborate grillwork, decorative tiles
around doorways and windows, and a bell tower or two.
Split Level
A Modern style that architects created to sequester
certain living activities--such as sleeping or socializing--split levels
offered an multilevel alternative to the ubiquitous style in the 1950s.
The nether parts of a typical design were devoted to a garage and TV room; the
midlevel, which usually jutted out from the two-story section, offered
"quieter" quarters, such as the living and dining rooms; and the area
above the garage was designed for bedrooms. Found mostly in the East and
Midwest,
split-levels, like their Ranch counterparts, were constructed with various
building materials.
Stick
A member of the Victorian family, the Stick house
boasts a lot of detailing. However, few Stick homes incorporate all the
possible features. Typical characteristics include gabled, steeply pitched
roofs with overhangs; wooden shingles covering the exterior walls and roof;
horizontal, vertical, or diagonal boards--the "sticks" from which it
takes its name--that decorate the cladding; and porches. You'll find traditional sticks in the
Northeast and their sister, the Western Stick, in
California. The
Western Stick is rectangular with sliding glass doors, a small chimney, and
large panes of glass.
Tudor
This architecture style was popular in the 1920s and 1930s
and continues to be a mainstay in suburbs across the
United
States. The defining characteristics are
half-timbering on bay windows and upper floors, and facades that are dominated
by one or more steeply pitched cross gables. Patterned brick or stone walls are
common, as are rounded doorways, multi-paned casement windows, and large stone
chimneys. A subtype of the Tudor Revival style is the Cotswold Cottage. With a
sloping roof and a massive chimney at the front, a Cotswold Cottage may remind
you of a picturesque storybook home.
Victorian
Victorian architecture dates from the second half of
the 19th century, when
America was
exploring new approaches to building and design. Advancements in machine
technology meant that Victorian-era builders could easily incorporate
mass-produced ornamentation such as brackets, spindles, and patterned shingles.
The last true Victorians were constructed in the early 1900s, but contemporary
builders often borrow Victorian ideas, designing eclectic
"neo-Victorians." These homes combine modern materials with 19th
century details, such as curved towers and spindled porches. A number of
Victorian styles are recreated on the fanciful "
Main
Street" at Disney theme parks in
Florida,
California, and
Europe.
Information provided by Realtor.org
