- Hardcover: 544 pages
- Publisher: Knopf (Jun 12 1984)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0394510321
- ISBN-13: 978-0394510323
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 3.4 x 24.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 975 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #991,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
How to Use This Book
Preface
Looking at American Houses
Style: The Fashions of American Houses
Form: The Shapes of American Houses
Structure: The Anatomy of American Houses
Pictorial Key and Glossary
Folk Houses
Native American
Pre-Railroad
National
Colonial Houses (1600-1820)
Postmedieval English
Dutch Colonial
French Colonial
Spanish Colonial
Georgian
Adam
Early Classical Revival
Romantic Houses (1820-1880)
Greek Revival
Gothic Revival
Italianate
Exotic Revivals
Octagon
Victorian Houses (1860-1900)
Second Empire
Stick
Queen Anne
Shingle
Richardsonian Romanesque
Folk Victorian
Eclectic Houses (1880-1940)
Anglo-American, English, and French Period Houses
Colonial Revival
Neoclassical
Tudor
Chateauesque
Beaux Arts
French Eclectic
Mediterranean Period Houses
Italian Renaissance
Mission
Spanish Eclectic
Monterey
Pueblo Revival
Modern Houses
Prairie
Craftsman
Modernistic
International
American Houses Since 1940
Modern
Neoeclectic
Contemporary Folk
For Further Reference
Index
Preface
Looking at American Houses
Style: The Fashions of American Houses
Form: The Shapes of American Houses
Structure: The Anatomy of American Houses
Pictorial Key and Glossary
Folk Houses
Native American
Pre-Railroad
National
Colonial Houses (1600-1820)
Postmedieval English
Dutch Colonial
French Colonial
Spanish Colonial
Georgian
Adam
Early Classical Revival
Romantic Houses (1820-1880)
Greek Revival
Gothic Revival
Italianate
Exotic Revivals
Octagon
Victorian Houses (1860-1900)
Second Empire
Stick
Queen Anne
Shingle
Richardsonian Romanesque
Folk Victorian
Eclectic Houses (1880-1940)
Anglo-American, English, and French Period Houses
Colonial Revival
Neoclassical
Tudor
Chateauesque
Beaux Arts
French Eclectic
Mediterranean Period Houses
Italian Renaissance
Mission
Spanish Eclectic
Monterey
Pueblo Revival
Modern Houses
Prairie
Craftsman
Modernistic
International
American Houses Since 1940
Modern
Neoeclectic
Contemporary Folk
For Further Reference
Index
Book Description
For the house lover and the curious tourist, for the house buyer and the weekend stroller, for neighborhood preservation groups and for all who want to know more about their community -- here, at last, is a book that makes it both easy and pleasurable to identify the various styles and periods of American domestic architecture.
Concentrating not on rare landmarks but on typical dwellings in ordinary neighborhoods all across the United States -- houses built over the past three hundred years and lived in by Americans of every social and economic background -- the book provides you with the facts (and frame of reference) that will enable you to look in a fresh way at the houses you constantly see around you. It tells you -- and shows you in more than 1,200 illustrations -- what you need to know in order to be able to recognize the several distinct architectural styles and to understand their historical significance. What does that cornice mean? Or that porch? That door? When was this house built? What does its style say about the people who built it? You'll find the answers to such questions here.
This is how the book works: Each of thirty-nine chapters focuses on a particular style (and its variants). Each begins with a large schematic drawing that highlights the style's most important identifying features. Additional drawings and photographs depict the most common shapes and the principal subtypes, allowing you to see at a glance a wide range of examples of each style. Still more drawings offer close-up views of typical small details -- windows, doors, cornices, etc. -- that might be difficult to see in full-house pictures. The accompanying text is rich in information about each style -- describing in detail its identifying features, telling you where (and in what quantity) you're likely to find examples of it, discussing all of its notable variants, and revealing its origin and tracing its history.
In the book's introductory chapters you'll find invaluable general discussions of house-building materials and techniques ("Structure"), house shapes ("Form"), and the many traditions of architectural fashion ("Style") that have influenced American house design through the past three centuries. A pictorial key and glossary help lead you from simple, easily recognized architectural features -- the presence of a tile roof, for example -- to the styles in which that feature is likely to be found.
Concentrating not on rare landmarks but on typical dwellings in ordinary neighborhoods all across the United States -- houses built over the past three hundred years and lived in by Americans of every social and economic background -- the book provides you with the facts (and frame of reference) that will enable you to look in a fresh way at the houses you constantly see around you. It tells you -- and shows you in more than 1,200 illustrations -- what you need to know in order to be able to recognize the several distinct architectural styles and to understand their historical significance. What does that cornice mean? Or that porch? That door? When was this house built? What does its style say about the people who built it? You'll find the answers to such questions here.
This is how the book works: Each of thirty-nine chapters focuses on a particular style (and its variants). Each begins with a large schematic drawing that highlights the style's most important identifying features. Additional drawings and photographs depict the most common shapes and the principal subtypes, allowing you to see at a glance a wide range of examples of each style. Still more drawings offer close-up views of typical small details -- windows, doors, cornices, etc. -- that might be difficult to see in full-house pictures. The accompanying text is rich in information about each style -- describing in detail its identifying features, telling you where (and in what quantity) you're likely to find examples of it, discussing all of its notable variants, and revealing its origin and tracing its history.
In the book's introductory chapters you'll find invaluable general discussions of house-building materials and techniques ("Structure"), house shapes ("Form"), and the many traditions of architectural fashion ("Style") that have influenced American house design through the past three centuries. A pictorial key and glossary help lead you from simple, easily recognized architectural features -- the presence of a tile roof, for example -- to the styles in which that feature is likely to be found.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Domestic buildings are of two principal sorts: folk houses and styled houses. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Domestic buildings are of two principal sorts: folk houses and styled houses. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very useful for this novice,
By Ken Zirkel "Kickstand" (Somewhere in New England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Field Guide to American Houses (Hardcover)
A very useful reference, even for those (like me) just starting to understand different styles of homes. My only gripes: more photos, color photos, and more specific information on the photos would be more useful.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Contemporary Classic Saves Architectural Books Forever,
By "joewillie_01" (Eastman, GA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Field Guide to American Houses (Hardcover)
Are the differences of the Ionic, Doric, or Corinthian Columns a little fuzy to you? And are these columns found on Early Classical Revival, Greek Revival, or Italiante? (it's a little tricky, they can all three be found on all three but rarely together). McAlestor & McAlestor have transformed a world of bleak descriptions and bland designs and turned them into an understand system of brillant diagrams and excellent pictures. This book was assigned in my historic architecture/preservation class and serves as the DEFINITIVE SOURCE for architectural identification. Buy it and throw it in the car. The world has made some great houses and McAlestor does the BEST JOB of explaining it to all of us!!!
4.0 out of 5 stars
An indispensable tool,
By Chrijeff (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Field Guide to American Houses (Hardcover)
I stand in awe of the amount of work that must have gone into this book. Photographs of existing examples of every style of architecture (from #1, a Winnebago bark wigwam, to a sampling of NeoVictorians) in every region of the United States dominate its pages (their size is the only reason I don't rate it at five stars: you'll definitely want a magnifier). A lengthy (61pp) preface explains the roots of American house styles and all their basic elements, from plans and shapes to methods of construction to decorative details. Each chapter concentrates on a basic style, from "Pre-Railroad" (log cabins and plains soddies, including a splendid series of sketches showing the former's possible permutations) through "NeoEclectic" and "Contemporary Folk;" all include a map showing the locations in which that type was common and the period of its outward spread, and most have ink sketches of details such as doors, windows, roofs, and general shape. Whether you're a dedicated "house-walker" or just curious about the kinds of houses people have lived in over our nation's history, this comfortably sized and clearly illustrated volume should be on your shelf. I refer to it regularly in writing about past house styles.
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