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AMERICAN BY DESIGN: PIONEERING ARCHITECTURAL STYLES THAT WE CALL HOME
AMERICAN BY DESIGN: PIONEERING ARCHITECTURAL STYLES THAT WE CALL HOME
Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Director, Washington Alexandria Architecture Center
residentialarchitecture has evolvedover centuries into atapestry of styles as unique and varied asthe landscape in which it sits. Multifacetedin composition and singular in stance,contemporary American residential designseems to embody the country’s archetypicalvalues of individualism, multiculturalism,and ingenuity. Decidedly independent ofrestrictive design ideals, American homesembrace a panoply of eras, global influences,architectural philosophies, and aesthetics—sometimes all in a single structure.
These iconic architectural styles have eachplayed a role in laying the foundation for thisuniquely American approach to residentialarchitecture, and they continue to make theirpresence felt in our homes today.
Neoclassical Greek
//COLONIAL COUSINS\\
“When the first settlers landed on American shores, the difficulties in finding or making shelter must have seemed ironical as well as almost unbearable.”Alice Morse Earle, 19th Century historian andauthor
New England and the East Coast offer thebest examples of the British Colonial, Saltbox,and Cape Cod styles, and Dutch and GermanColonial traditions abound in the HudsonValley, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Warmer climes,especially well-preserved historic cities like NewOrleans and Savannah, host an abundance ofFrench and Spanish Colonial homes.
SALTBOX
//NEOCLASSICAL IDEALISM\\
The one way for us to become great, perhaps inimitable, is by imitating the ancients.Johann Joachim Winckelmann, 18 th Century arthistorian
Following the Revolutionary War, the fledgling country's founders envisioned a land and people inspired by the democratic ideals of the Greeks, and the art, design, and architecture of the day became tangible, visible demonstrations of that vision. A passion for Neoclassical architecture took hold of the country’s elite, and remarkable homes—among them Mt. Vernon, Monticello, and the White House—began to dot the countryside from New England well into the South. More quotidian abodes soon adopted the symmetry, triangular pediments, and columned facades common to the style. This revival of NeoclassicalGreek architecture remained popular from the late 18th century until the early 19th century, and its influence has remained a ubiquitous presence on many a suburban street ever since.
// THE VICTORIANS AND THE GILDED AGE\\
“To the young American, here or elsewhere, the paths to fortune are innumerable and all open; There is invitation in the air and success in all his wide horizon.”Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, TheGilded Age: A Tale of Today
As the 19th century rolled into the IndustrialAge, fortunes were made and lofty democratic ideals in design gradually gave way to new public devotion to industriousness and conspicuous consumption. Queen Victoria’sreign from 1837–1901 coincided with this period of American prosperity, and her name remains synonymous with the architecture of the period. The various styles of Victorian architecture include Gothic Revival, notable for its steeply pitched roofs and arches mimicking the medieval cathedrals of France and England; Italianate, with its bay windows, balconies, and gabled roofs; and Second Empire, perhaps the most recognizable Victorian style due to its dramatic mansard roofs. Asymmetrical, highly decorative, and ornamented, all stood in stark contrast to the elegant austerity of the Neoclassical period that preceded it. As mass production of construction materials became the norm, homes throughout the United States soon began to emulate this new and expressive architectural style.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the wealth of America’s industrial barons ushered in the Gilded Age, a period in which monumental residential architecture became the ideal for the city dwellings—as well as country and vacation— of the nation’s well-to-do, primarily along coastal enclaves in the East, but also in newly burgeoning centers of industry throughout the Midwest. Straying slightly from the warren of interconnected rooms typical of most Victorian architecture, this later “Picturesque” period’s Stick, Queen Anne, and Shingle-style homes, while also grand in stature, featured more open, lighter interiors centered around a “living hall,”and complex ornamentation began slowly giving way to the more organic timbered and shingled facades—both features not uncommon in newbuilds today.
Romanesque Revival
The final architectural evolution of the GildedAge brought the heavy, stone-clad RomanesqueRevival, led primarily by architect HenryHobson Richardson (the namesake of the oftused“Richardsonian Romanesque” to describe
the period). A particularly grand and imposingresidential style, Romanesque Revival nevergained widespread popularity in America’sneighborhoods, but there is perhaps no moreidentifiable—or ubiquitous—style of civicarchitecture, as courthouses, libraries, and cityhalls in small towns and large cities from theEast Coast to the West attest.
// THE PRAIRIE SCHOOL\\
“The architect should strive continually to simplify; the ensemble of the rooms should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty.”Frank Lloyd Wright
Prairie
No single architect has had a greater impact on American residential architecture than Frank Lloyd Wright. An early American proponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement first popularized in England, often referred to as Craftsman Style in the United States, Wright adapted the movement’s devotion to simplicity, natural materials, individual craftsmanship, and forward-looking design (a reaction to Industrial Age automation and mass production that had become synonymous with inhumane working and living conditions) to his belief in “organic architecture;” architecture intended to not just accommodate but actually be the product of the landscape around it. Typically single-story and horizontally situated, with pared-back rooflines and facades—an aesthetic revolution in a setting filled with towering Victorian confections—this new style evoked the open spaces and wide horizons of the American prairie. Wright dubbed his approach “Prairie Style,” giving birth to a new American icon: the ranch-style home.
In the first years of the 20th century, according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, Wright and a cadre of fellow Midwestern architects “sought to create a new, democratic architecture, free from the shackles of European styles, and suited to a modern American way of living.” Completed in 1910, the Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago is considered Wright’s Prairie Style masterpiece, and its wide, open main room with space for living and dining introduced the concept of open-plan living that many American families enjoy today. Unique in both its Midwestern birthplace as well as its wholly American pedigree, PrairieStyle dominated American home design from the turn of the century until the early 1950s, ushering in a new, modern era of residential architecture in the United States.
Mid-Century
// THE MID-CENTURY AND MODERNISM\\
“Society needs a good image of itself. That is the job of the architect.”Walter Gropius
With the onset of the Great Depression,the popularity of Wright’s revolutionary,streamlined style spread and encouragednew takes on some of the country’s earliestarchitecture. Pared-down versions of theColonial and Cape Cod traditions, as well asbungalows, grew in popularity among thosewho could afford a home. As the economyroared back to life following World War II, andnewly mobile Americans took to their cars andexpanding highway system, suburbs sprang upcoast to coast, and a housing boom ensued.
In the 1950s, American residential design evolved to meet an ever-rising demand for affordable homes. New takes on old ideas— “Neo-Colonial,” “Neo-Victorian,” and a host of other “Neo” styles—sprang up around the country, just as a wholly different, modern aesthetic began to assert a foothold in the American landscape. Architects like Charles and Ray Eames, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen, and Walter Gropius further advanced Wright’s ideals of “organic architecture” via principles devoted to simplicity, form over function, homes that fit into their landscapes, and a belief that beautiful architecture should be accessible to all who could afford a home. Advances in engineering; the introduction of fiberglass, plastics, and aluminum; and a hypercharged manufacturing sector suddenly made modern design affordable to a burgeoning middle class.
These architects’ democratizing, family-centric home designs—large, open, light-filled living spaces with access and connection to the outdoors—first gained popularity in California, but the new modernist style, devoid of the historical references of its “Neo” neighbors, quickly reshaped the country’s neighborhoods into today’s iconic streetscapes: a uniquely American “all-you-can-eat-buffet” of styles, international influences, history, and modernity. �
Illustrations by Kane Grose
