Photo by Wes Schrader
Art Deco (1920-1940)
The Art Deco style derives its name from The Exposition des Arts Decoratifs (Paris, 1925). It strove for modernity, an artistic expression of the machine age, and the suggestion of motion. Forms were simplified and streamlined. The motifs were derived from geometric shapes, often stepped back or angular with floral designs, zigzags (chevrons) and fluted or reed-patterned ornamentation -- often inspired by those of ancient civilizations. African tribal art, Central American (Aztec and Mayan) architecture, pharaonic Egyptian art (Tutankhamen's Tomb was discovered in 1922) and the Orient (glazes and lacquerwork) were just some of the many exotic sources from which this style came.
.
Photo courtesy of TheVanderbilt Mansion
Beaux Arts (1885 - 1920)
Think of the Vanderbilts. Think of the Goelets. Think of the Belmonts, and the words "American Palaces" come to mind. The Beaux Arts houses of the late 1800s and early 1900s were grand displays of those pre-income tax days when fortunes could be amassed and proudly displayed in true ornate fashion. During the early Beaux Arts days, both New York City and Newport-playground to the nouveau riche-were the settings for these palatial digs. Years later, an economic recession and higher taxes forced the grandest examples of this style to be bulldozed, never to be admired again.
.
Photo by Ted Wells
Cape Cod Cottage (1750-1850; 1940-1950)
Cape Cod style houses were built in New England from the late 17th century until about 1850. In the outlands of Cape Cod, materials and other resources were scarce, thus the houses were often more modest than elsewhere. Built on massive 10x10 oak sills so that the structures could be dragged on sand to other sites as the sand dunes shifted and changed the landscape, these diminutive houses were early America's version of the starter home.
.
Photo by Wes Schrader
Craftsman Bungalow (1905 - 1930)
The bungalow was the dominant style for smaller houses built throughout the country during the period from about 1905 until the early 1920s. The Craftsman, the most popular style of bungalow, originated in Southern California and quickly spread-via pattern books and popular magazines-throughout the rest of the country. Anyone, anywhere, as long as they lived near a train depot, could pick a bungalow style out of a Sears Roebuck or Aladdin Redi-Cut catalog and have the whole house-plumbing and all-shipped to them.
.
Photo courtesy of Dave's Victorian House Site
Folk Victorian (1870-1910)
Like the Italianate, the Folk Victorian has various plans, a central-hall I-house form, an L or T-shaped plan and a side-passage townhouse plan. It is covered by wooden clapboards and usually features metal hipped or gable roofs. The Queen Anne Victorian is often confused with the Folk Victorian. While the two styles do have similar spindlework detailing, unlike the Queen Anne style, the Folk Victorian is symmetrical and orderly. It does not have towers, elaborate moldings or textured and varied wall surfaces that are characteristic of the Queen Anne.
.
Photo by Wes Schrader
French Eclectic (1915 - 1940)
The French style displays great variety in form and detailing, but is united by the characteristic style of roof. Because they both share a common Medieval English tradition, both French Eclectic houses and Tudor Revivals use half-timbering with a variety of different wall materials, as well as roofs of flat tile, slate, stone or thatch. As a result, the two styles are often confused. To tell the difference, one only has to look for the telltale dominant front-facing cross gables; if it's missing, it's a French Eclectic.
Photo by Ted Wells
Italianate (1840-1885)
The Italianate Style, inspired by the country villas of northern Italy, was a rebellion against the formal classical ideals in art and architecture that had been fashionable for about two hundred years. Part of the Romantic or Picturesque Movement, it is also known as Tuscan, Lombard, Bracketed, Italian Villa or High Victorian Italianate Style. There are two main subgroups of the Italianate style: the Country and the City Style.
.
Photo by Wes Schrader
Prairie Style (1900-1920)
Many architects consider examples of Prairie Style to be the first truly modern architectural design. The acknowledged leader of this style was Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). Wright believed that a design drew its beauty from within -- from its own structure -- rather than from applied decoration. Wright created the philosophy of "organic architecture." The central principle of this belief maintains that the building should develop out of its natural surroundings. From the outset, Wright exhibited bold originality in his designs for both private and public structures and rebelled against the ornate neoclassic and Victorian styles favored by conventional architects.
.
Photo by Wes Schrader
Pueblo Revival (1910 - present)
The Pueblo Revival is a composite of Spanish and American Indian (Hopi and Pueblo tribes) traditions: a flat-roofed, thick-walled, courtyard-centered system as different from houses in most of America as timber framing is from adobe brick. It is most common in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it persists today, in part because of the requirements of special design controls in historic districts. Adobe construction was an effective shelter against the desert climate. The thick walls acted to absorb solar heat during the day so that it could be released at night. Small windows, deeply set and shaded by an extended roof over the "portal" (a continuous porch) prevented the entry of direct sunlight and the searing desert breeze.
.
Photo by Ted Wells
Queen Anne Victorian (1880-1910)
The Queen Anne Victorian house style utterly dominated Victorian residential architecture from 1880 to 1910. It was one of the more ornate and eclectic examples of the Victorian Style and the one that can legitimately be considered as more American than the Gothic, Italianate, or Second Empire styles. Though its name indicates a borrowing from England, the Queen Anne Victorian did not look to any historic European models for its inspiration. Rather, it is indicative of the ornamental excess made possible by power tools and mass-produced decorative trim work.
.
Photo by Ted Wells
The Ranch House (1932-1980)
The Ranch Style became become the dominant style throughout the country during the decades of the '50s and '60s. In the 1950s almost any one-story, close-to-the-ground, rambling house was called a California ranch house. With its open kitchen/living area, the ranch was specifically geared to casual entertaining. Another key selling point was the desirable indoor/outdoor living promised by the one-story layout, which featured glass doors, picture windows, and terraces and patios secluded in a rear yard. Having the ability to move freely about the house, without steps, into large private porches and patios from almost every room was living the "good life".
.
Photo courtesy of University of Richmond.
Victorian Stick Style (1860-1885)
The linear geometric Stick Style was a direct expression of the reform movement that pushed for honesty in architectural design. It stressed the use of wood and was built in the half-timbered style, which left the structure of the building visible from the outside. Gone were the formality and symmetry of the high-style Victorian houses; instead, the Stick Style displayed interesting shapes, such as porches and towers, as well as bright, contrasting paint colors. Also characteristic of this style were ornamental brackets and bargeboards, lacy openwork balconies, overhanging eaves, colored shingles and the purely decorative crisscross timbers, or stickwork.
Photo by Ted Wells
Streamline Moderne (1920-1949)
This ultra-modern style displayed an intense fascination with speed. Its visual vocabulary (the curve, the teardrop and the uninterrupted horizontal line) was derived largely from the form of high-speed modern transportation machines: the airplane, the automobile and even the ocean liner. A rapid sense of movement was imparted by narrow horizontal bands of windows that often wrapped around corners and by horizontal layering on the building's façade that used changes in colors or materials. For the limited number of Americans who could afford to build, a Streamline Moderne made them appear progressive, scientific, and avant-garde.
Photo courtesy of the Tinker Swiss Cottage
Museum in Rockford, Illinois.
Swiss Cottage (1840-1860)
In the mid-nineteenth century, the genuine Swiss chalet was perhaps the most appealing of wood-built houses. For the English, Switzerland was both Protestant and picturesque, making it the idyllic destination spot for proper English citizens seeking to escape a growing industrialized society. As a result, the Swiss chalet soon grew to be a popular cottage style that dotted the English countryside. All the right people had a Swiss Cottage. Charles Dickens had one in his garden and Queen Victoria imported one in 1853 as a playhouse at Osburne, her retreat on the Isle of Wight. Without its beloved Swiss Alps to serve as a natural backdrop, however, the newly adopted cottage seemed rather spiritless.
.
Photo by Ted Wells
Tudor Revival (1890-1940)
Most Tudor houses have stucco, masonry, or masonry-veneered walls. In authentic Tudor construction, the actual timber framework of the building is left exposed, and the spaces between the timbers are filled or "nogged" with brickwork and often covered with white stucco. This creates a unique style sometimes known as a "black and white" house.
From the 1890s to the 1930s, wealthy Americans favored the elaborate Tudor houses, reminiscent of the English aristocracy, for their country and suburban estates. Around 1920, technological advances made possible the one-story, masonry-veneered Tudor cottage. These considerably more modest versions closely resembled Craftsman-style wooden bungalows and were the preferred style in most suburban developments.
Source: REALTOR association.
Art Deco (1920-1940)
The Art Deco style derives its name from The Exposition des Arts Decoratifs (Paris, 1925). It strove for modernity, an artistic expression of the machine age, and the suggestion of motion. Forms were simplified and streamlined. The motifs were derived from geometric shapes, often stepped back or angular with floral designs, zigzags (chevrons) and fluted or reed-patterned ornamentation -- often inspired by those of ancient civilizations. African tribal art, Central American (Aztec and Mayan) architecture, pharaonic Egyptian art (Tutankhamen's Tomb was discovered in 1922) and the Orient (glazes and lacquerwork) were just some of the many exotic sources from which this style came.
.
Photo courtesy of TheVanderbilt Mansion
Beaux Arts (1885 - 1920)
Think of the Vanderbilts. Think of the Goelets. Think of the Belmonts, and the words "American Palaces" come to mind. The Beaux Arts houses of the late 1800s and early 1900s were grand displays of those pre-income tax days when fortunes could be amassed and proudly displayed in true ornate fashion. During the early Beaux Arts days, both New York City and Newport-playground to the nouveau riche-were the settings for these palatial digs. Years later, an economic recession and higher taxes forced the grandest examples of this style to be bulldozed, never to be admired again.
.
Photo by Ted Wells
Cape Cod Cottage (1750-1850; 1940-1950)
Cape Cod style houses were built in New England from the late 17th century until about 1850. In the outlands of Cape Cod, materials and other resources were scarce, thus the houses were often more modest than elsewhere. Built on massive 10x10 oak sills so that the structures could be dragged on sand to other sites as the sand dunes shifted and changed the landscape, these diminutive houses were early America's version of the starter home.
.
Photo by Wes Schrader
Craftsman Bungalow (1905 - 1930)
The bungalow was the dominant style for smaller houses built throughout the country during the period from about 1905 until the early 1920s. The Craftsman, the most popular style of bungalow, originated in Southern California and quickly spread-via pattern books and popular magazines-throughout the rest of the country. Anyone, anywhere, as long as they lived near a train depot, could pick a bungalow style out of a Sears Roebuck or Aladdin Redi-Cut catalog and have the whole house-plumbing and all-shipped to them.
.
Photo courtesy of Dave's Victorian House Site
Folk Victorian (1870-1910)
Like the Italianate, the Folk Victorian has various plans, a central-hall I-house form, an L or T-shaped plan and a side-passage townhouse plan. It is covered by wooden clapboards and usually features metal hipped or gable roofs. The Queen Anne Victorian is often confused with the Folk Victorian. While the two styles do have similar spindlework detailing, unlike the Queen Anne style, the Folk Victorian is symmetrical and orderly. It does not have towers, elaborate moldings or textured and varied wall surfaces that are characteristic of the Queen Anne.
.
Photo by Wes Schrader
French Eclectic (1915 - 1940)
The French style displays great variety in form and detailing, but is united by the characteristic style of roof. Because they both share a common Medieval English tradition, both French Eclectic houses and Tudor Revivals use half-timbering with a variety of different wall materials, as well as roofs of flat tile, slate, stone or thatch. As a result, the two styles are often confused. To tell the difference, one only has to look for the telltale dominant front-facing cross gables; if it's missing, it's a French Eclectic.
Photo by Ted Wells
Italianate (1840-1885)
The Italianate Style, inspired by the country villas of northern Italy, was a rebellion against the formal classical ideals in art and architecture that had been fashionable for about two hundred years. Part of the Romantic or Picturesque Movement, it is also known as Tuscan, Lombard, Bracketed, Italian Villa or High Victorian Italianate Style. There are two main subgroups of the Italianate style: the Country and the City Style.
.
Photo by Wes Schrader
Prairie Style (1900-1920)
Many architects consider examples of Prairie Style to be the first truly modern architectural design. The acknowledged leader of this style was Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). Wright believed that a design drew its beauty from within -- from its own structure -- rather than from applied decoration. Wright created the philosophy of "organic architecture." The central principle of this belief maintains that the building should develop out of its natural surroundings. From the outset, Wright exhibited bold originality in his designs for both private and public structures and rebelled against the ornate neoclassic and Victorian styles favored by conventional architects.
.
Photo by Wes Schrader
Pueblo Revival (1910 - present)
The Pueblo Revival is a composite of Spanish and American Indian (Hopi and Pueblo tribes) traditions: a flat-roofed, thick-walled, courtyard-centered system as different from houses in most of America as timber framing is from adobe brick. It is most common in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it persists today, in part because of the requirements of special design controls in historic districts. Adobe construction was an effective shelter against the desert climate. The thick walls acted to absorb solar heat during the day so that it could be released at night. Small windows, deeply set and shaded by an extended roof over the "portal" (a continuous porch) prevented the entry of direct sunlight and the searing desert breeze.
.
Photo by Ted Wells
Queen Anne Victorian (1880-1910)
The Queen Anne Victorian house style utterly dominated Victorian residential architecture from 1880 to 1910. It was one of the more ornate and eclectic examples of the Victorian Style and the one that can legitimately be considered as more American than the Gothic, Italianate, or Second Empire styles. Though its name indicates a borrowing from England, the Queen Anne Victorian did not look to any historic European models for its inspiration. Rather, it is indicative of the ornamental excess made possible by power tools and mass-produced decorative trim work.
.
Photo by Ted Wells
The Ranch House (1932-1980)
The Ranch Style became become the dominant style throughout the country during the decades of the '50s and '60s. In the 1950s almost any one-story, close-to-the-ground, rambling house was called a California ranch house. With its open kitchen/living area, the ranch was specifically geared to casual entertaining. Another key selling point was the desirable indoor/outdoor living promised by the one-story layout, which featured glass doors, picture windows, and terraces and patios secluded in a rear yard. Having the ability to move freely about the house, without steps, into large private porches and patios from almost every room was living the "good life".
.
Photo courtesy of University of Richmond.
Victorian Stick Style (1860-1885)
The linear geometric Stick Style was a direct expression of the reform movement that pushed for honesty in architectural design. It stressed the use of wood and was built in the half-timbered style, which left the structure of the building visible from the outside. Gone were the formality and symmetry of the high-style Victorian houses; instead, the Stick Style displayed interesting shapes, such as porches and towers, as well as bright, contrasting paint colors. Also characteristic of this style were ornamental brackets and bargeboards, lacy openwork balconies, overhanging eaves, colored shingles and the purely decorative crisscross timbers, or stickwork.
Photo by Ted Wells
Streamline Moderne (1920-1949)
This ultra-modern style displayed an intense fascination with speed. Its visual vocabulary (the curve, the teardrop and the uninterrupted horizontal line) was derived largely from the form of high-speed modern transportation machines: the airplane, the automobile and even the ocean liner. A rapid sense of movement was imparted by narrow horizontal bands of windows that often wrapped around corners and by horizontal layering on the building's façade that used changes in colors or materials. For the limited number of Americans who could afford to build, a Streamline Moderne made them appear progressive, scientific, and avant-garde.
Photo courtesy of the Tinker Swiss Cottage
Museum in Rockford, Illinois.
Swiss Cottage (1840-1860)
In the mid-nineteenth century, the genuine Swiss chalet was perhaps the most appealing of wood-built houses. For the English, Switzerland was both Protestant and picturesque, making it the idyllic destination spot for proper English citizens seeking to escape a growing industrialized society. As a result, the Swiss chalet soon grew to be a popular cottage style that dotted the English countryside. All the right people had a Swiss Cottage. Charles Dickens had one in his garden and Queen Victoria imported one in 1853 as a playhouse at Osburne, her retreat on the Isle of Wight. Without its beloved Swiss Alps to serve as a natural backdrop, however, the newly adopted cottage seemed rather spiritless.
.
Photo by Ted Wells
Tudor Revival (1890-1940)
Most Tudor houses have stucco, masonry, or masonry-veneered walls. In authentic Tudor construction, the actual timber framework of the building is left exposed, and the spaces between the timbers are filled or "nogged" with brickwork and often covered with white stucco. This creates a unique style sometimes known as a "black and white" house.
From the 1890s to the 1930s, wealthy Americans favored the elaborate Tudor houses, reminiscent of the English aristocracy, for their country and suburban estates. Around 1920, technological advances made possible the one-story, masonry-veneered Tudor cottage. These considerably more modest versions closely resembled Craftsman-style wooden bungalows and were the preferred style in most suburban developments.
Source: REALTOR association.
No comments:
Post a Comment