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January 4, 2015
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The Great American Home Which house styles have a distinctly American feel? The answer is more about need than stylistic flair By Dawn Klingensmith
to turn out decorative wood pieces” for housing, McAlester says. “If any of us were to look at photographs of a Mass production meant that (previously whole bunch of houses in countries around the world handmade) spindle-work became cheaper and more and guessed which ones were in America, we would widely available. She says, “Now, you could put a guess right most of the time,” says John Milnes piece of lumber into a machine and push a button or Baker, an architect based in South Kent, Conn. a pedal and have a beautifully turned piece of wood.” Why we’d succeed is a bit of a mystery, because The ease of manufacturing and distributing these while there exist a few distinctly American embellishments meant that the splendor of luxury architectural styles, they were developed and peaked design was democratized. Nowadays, this is most from 1880 to 1930. obvious when looking at so-called “McMansions.” That was a time when a handful of influential The Car Factor architects disavowed “the use of historical America’s love of the automobile also changed the precedent for decoration and design,” says Dallaslook of housing. The “very distinctly American ranch based preservation advocate Virginia Savage house” is largely due to America’s car-centric culture, McAlester, author of the newly updated “A Field McAlester says. Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to One-story bungalows are typically narrow and Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic close together. Ranch houses characteristically are Architecture” (Knopf, 2013). oriented so “the wide end runs along the street,” Before then, American immigrants used building she explains, which is not at all accommodating to techniques and styles from their homelands, Baker pedestrians. says. Attached garages also are common. In earlier Regional Flavors times, only the wealthy could afford cars, and they In his own book, “American House Styles: were no more inclined to “stable” them near the A Concise Guide” (W. W. Norton & Co., 2002), house than they were horses. Baker identifies just three “indigenous styles” of House Styles Today the United States developed in this period – the McAlester identifies “Millennial Mansions” as the “sculpturally rich” Shingle style of the Northeast; large luxury homes that are common now in the U.S. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style in Chicago and the They are “an entirely new form,” McAlester writes, Midwest; and the Craftsman style that evolved with with rooflines that “practically explode above the California’s “bungalow craze.” house.” Their exteriors have another “new signature These regional styles alone boast a “lack of feature – prominent (and largely non-historic) oneborrowed or imported features,” Baker writes, unlike and-one-half- or two-story entries.” homes that were influenced by foreign styles. However, the exteriors almost always include Though American homes developed some distinct “details borrowed from one or more historic styles,” features early on, these were, for the most part, McAlester says. adaptations brought about by different climate Today, much of America’s housing stock consists conditions, Baker says. A porch or veranda was of “stylistic mixtures” reflective of a melting pot one such feature – but it’s hardly the quintessential ideology. marker that makes a home identifiably “American.” Much like the history of the U.S., the mixture is Historical Influence an optimistic – if not altogether successful –attempt Besides the defined regional styles, several facets to achieve harmony by melding together disparate of America’s unique history and development as a parts. nation are reflected in a variety of American homes. “These have been created both by those who These influences begin with the Civil War, knowingly sought the unusual,” McAlester writes, “as industrialization and railroads. When the war well as by those who unwittingly combined historical concluded, munitions factories were “converted precedents.” CTW Features
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American homes, unlike other architecture styles, often include an attached garage to support the popularity of cars. Their use allowed for many long, one-story ranch-style homes.
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A modern American luxury home, sometimes known as Millennial Mansion, features a prominent 1.5- to 2-story entryway.
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The Craftsman bungalow is a style commonly associated with California and its regional climate needs.