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Stylistics--The Architectural
Styles
General Styles Info
A Glossary
of Building Styles is a site to
start exploration for some definitions.
Perhaps like no other site, this lecture on
American Architecture is the best site I have found on
the styles of architecture.
Another good one is from Northern Arizona University (of all places).
This one is a bit hard to read - but has good info.
Buildings to
1800
Most of the really good sites on pre-1800 buildings are
in outdoor museums. These include:
A good look at common houses of New England during the
1800's include these in Salem,
MA. Another town in New England was New
Bedford. This site is excellent in showing some photos
of architectural details and descriptions of typical
buildings. This town was also where Herman Melville lived
for a time.
Another good look at common buildings include those along
the Freedom
Trail in Boston.
The Fairbanks
House in Dedham, MA is the oldest house in the United
States and gives the best look at a house from early
settlements.
The second oldest may be the Wipple
House, also known as "Home Sweet Home."
The first time historic preservation become important to
people was because of one house, the house of George
Washington, Mount
Vernon. This site is well designed.
19th Century
Buildings
This page on 19th
and 20th Century Architects has lots of links.
A short tour
of Vermont Architecture is really quite good for late
18th and 19th Century vernacular architecture. The photos
are really nice.
A.W.N.Pugin
was a significant architect during the early 19th century
and was responsible for the development of the Gothic
Revival.
An important building for the Gothic Revival style was
Lyndhurst.
A paper on
Gothic Revival is long and wordy, but could be useful
for studies of 19th Century Architecture.
An important development in late 19th Century was the
Skyscaper. There is another with some
good images here.
The most famous skyscraper is The
Empire State Building.
Along with Skyscrapers, there were other developments
during this time. One of the most unfortunate was the
development of the tenements.
This link will take you to the New York Tenement Museum,
which is an excellent place to visit.
Jacob Riis wrote a book on the tenements called How
the Other Half Lives. This book has been put into
hypertext and has all the original pictures. It is a really
depressing book but it is quite important as a tie in to the
architecture of the urban landscape and the people of the
time.
One important architect during the 19th century was
H.H. Richardson.
He is one of my favorite architects. He designed the County
Courthouse in Pittsburgh.
Godey's
Lady's Book is good for finding information on the 19th
Century.
The
Historic House Architecture site is mostly Late 19th
Century and Early 20th century architecture.
As the 19th century close an important development was
the city beautiful movement. One place where plans were
drawn up for a city beautiful was Washington
D.C..
20th Century
Architecture
The Art
Deco Design Movement is a favorite of many students of
historic preservation styles. It was the precursor to the
international movement.
Another important development at this time was the
Arts and Crafts Movement.
After these developments other modes started to grow.
Perhaps the most important early 20th century architects was
Frank Lloyd
Wright, who developed the prairie style. Considered by
many to be his most important building was Fallingwater
built in Bear Run, PA (about an hour from my house!)
His mentor and dubbed the "father of American
Architecture" was Louis
Sullivan.
Two important architects of the 20th Century modernist
movement were Walter
Gropius and Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe.
Lastly, I wanted to include a cool link to the greatest
of all 20th century Architecture, the DINER
and its affiliated roadside friends. Check out the Diner
Museum!
Of course, I have started my own commercial vernacular
site--Right
over here!
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