A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic ArchitectureHere at last: the fully expanded, updated, and freshly designed second edition of the most comprehensive and widely acclaimed guide to domestic architecture—in print since its publication in 1984, and acknowledged everywhere as the unmatched, essential reference to American houses. Focusing on dwellings in urban and suburban neighborhoods and rural locations all across the continental United States—houses built over the past three hundred years reflecting every social and economic background—this guide provides in-depth information on the essentials of domestic architecture with facts and frames of reference that will enable you to look in a fresh way at the houses around you. With more than 1,600 detailed photographs and line illustrations, and a lucid, vastly informative text, it will teach you not only to recognize distinct architectural styles but also to understand their historical significance. What does that cornice signify? Or that porch? The shape of that door? The window treatment? When was this house built? What does the style say about its builders and their eras? You'll find the answers to these and myriad other questions in this encyclopedic and eminently practical book. Here are more than fifty styles and their variants, spanning seven distinct historical periods. Each style is illustrated with a large schematic drawing that highlights its most important identifying features. Additional drawings and photographs provide, at a glance, common alternative shapes, principal subtypes, and close-up views of typical small details—windows, doors, cornices, etc.—that can be difficult to see in full-house illustrations. The accompanying text explains the identifying features of each style, describing where and in what quantity they can be found, discussing all of its notable variants, and tracing their origin and history. The book's introductory chapters provide invaluable general discussions of construction materials and techniques, house shapes, and the various traditions of architectural fashion that have influenced American house design through the past three centuries. A pictorial key and glossary simplifies identification, connecting easily recognized architectural features—the presence of a tile roof, for example—to the styles in which that feature is likely to be found. Among the new material included in this edition are chapters on styles that have emerged in the thirty years since the previous edition; a groundbreaking chapter on the development and evolution of American neighborhoods; an appendix on approaches to construction in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; an expanded bibliography; and 600 new photographs and line drawings throughout. Here is an indispensable resource—both easy and pleasurable to use—for the house lover and the curious tourist, for the house buyer and the weekend stroller, for neighborhood preservation groups, architecture buffs, and everyone who wants to know more about their own homes and communities. It is an invaluable book of American architecture, culture, and history. |
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User Review - Maya47Bob46 - LibraryThingI expect to use this in my volunteer work as a member of the local design review committee which approves changes in historic districts and historic structures. Very important in New England. Read full review
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User Review - jonerthon - LibraryThingThe practical guide to something of the latter half of 2020 for me. This was my second time attempting to read this, motivated by an ongoing need to ID basic characteristics about residential ... Read full review
Contents
Looking at American Houses | 3 |
Folk Houses ſo | 104 |
PreRailroad | 119 |
National | 135 |
Manufactured | 149 |
Dutch Colonial | 169 |
Romantic Houses 18201880 | 245 |
Gothic Revival | 267 |
Spanish Revival | 521 |
Monterey | 537 |
Pueblo Revival | 543 |
Modern Houses | 549 |
Craftsman | 567 |
Modernistic | 581 |
Bankers Modern | 587 |
Ranch | 597 |
Italianate | 283 |
Exotic Revivals | 305 |
Stick | 333 |
Shingle | 373 |
Richardsonian Romanesque | 387 |
Eclectic Houses 18801940 | 407 |
Neoclassical | 435 |
Tudor | 449 |
French Period Houses | 469 |
Beaux Arts | 477 |
French Eclectic | 485 |
Mediterranean and Spanish | 497 |
Mission | 511 |
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Common terms and phrases
19th century addition American houses arched architect architecture areas brick building built California Carolina Chateauesque chimney City Classical Colonial Revival columns common commonly construction cornice Craftsman cross gables Dallas decorative detailing dominant door dormers early eaves Eclectic elaborate entry porch examples exterior Federal Frank Lloyd Wright French front facade front-gabled full-width gable garage Georgian Gothic Revival Greek Revival half-timbering high-style hipped roof Historic homes inspired Italianate late 19th century mansard masonry McAlester mid-19th century Millennium Mansion Modern neighborhoods Neoclassical Note º º one-story original overhang Palladian window pattern books pediment percent porch supports Prairie Principal Subtypes Queen Anne Ranch houses Renaissance Revival houses Richardsonian Romanesque Romanesque roof form rural shape Shingle side-gabled roof Spanish Revival steeply pitched stone story street streetcar streetcar suburbs stucco suburbs symmetrical Texas tower town houses Traditional houses Tudor two-story typical urban usually Variants and Details Vernacular Victorian wing wood wooden York
Bibliographic information
| Title | A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture |
| Authors | Virginia McAlester, Arcie Lee McAlester |
| Editors | Virginia McAlester, Arcie Lee McAlester |
| Photographs by | Steve Clicque |
| Illustrated by | Suzanne Patton Matty, Steve Clicque, Lauren Jarrett, Juan Rodriguez-Arnaiz |
| Edition | 2, illustrated, revised |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf, 2013 |
| ISBN | 140004359X, 9781400043590 |
| Length | 848 pages |
| Subjects | › › Architecture / Buildings / Residential Architecture / History / General Architecture / Regional |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |