| Learn more about our Architectural Styles | ||
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| COLONIAL | COTTAGE | EUROPEAN ROMANTIC |
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| FARMHOUSE | FOUR-SQUARE | MULTI-FAMILY |
The Colonial style (1700 - 1780) was based on a simple European medieval architecture consisting of a side-gabled rectangle and a central entry on the long side.
Essential Elements
- Simple, straightforward volumes with side wings and porches added to make expressive and balanced compositions
- An orderly, symmetrical relationship between doors, windows and building mass
- Simplified versions of Classical details and columns, ocassionally with Classical orders
(Tuscan and Ionic) used at the entry - Multi-pane windows
- Useful porch areas, often on the sides or rear
- Gable roof for main body (hip roof only in extremely rare and elegant circumstances)
Cottage
The Cottage is based on a simple European medieval rural architecture (Postmedieval), brought to the
American South
in the 1600s.
Essential Elements
- Simple, straightforward volumes with side wings
and porches added to make expressive and balanced compositions - An orderly, symmetrical relationship between doors, windows and building mass
- Steeply pitched, side gable roof with little or no rake
or eave overhang - Simple cornice detailing
- Useful porch areas, most often on the front but also
on the sides or rear - Massive end chimneys
- Roof dormers
- Simple entry detailing
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| Silk Reed Cottage • Click here for the Floor Plan (PDF) • Click here for a Virtual Tour • Photo Gallery |
European Romantic
The European Romantic style is based directly on the Elizabethan style (named for structures built during the rein of Queen Elizabeth from 1558-1603), borrowing elements from English cottages, manor houses, and vernacular village forms.
Essential Elements
- Steeply pitched roofs with multiple dormers and shallow eaves
- Eaves often do not align from one major form to another and often are extended asymmetrical toward the ground, visually reducing the overall height and scale of the building while appearing to be more integral with the landscape.
- Irregular placement of windows in a broad expanse of wall
- Vertically proportioned windows in groups, with a few small accent windows
- Prominent chimneys, often integrated into a wall mass
- Understated front entry
- Open air front verandas
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Farmhouse
Originating in the early 1700s, Farmhouse architecture is associated with “folk architecture,” characterized by stark simplicity, representing the lack of concern for traditional architectural style,
Essential Elements
- Slender, vertical main forms
- Steeply pitched roofs with open gables
- One-story, one and one-half story, and two-story forms,
sometimes mixed - Vertically proportioned windows and doors
- Long and deep porches
- Simple detailing, general lack of ornament
- Linear, ‘T’-shaped or ‘L’ -shaped plans
- Starkly white, typically with color provided by stone base,
stone or brick chimney, and darkly-painted doors - Larger sites will have various ancillary structures
Four-Square
The American Four-Square style of residential architecture enjoyed a popularity in American suburbs from 1890 thru 1935 and is considered by many as the first truly American home, not defined in form by any European style.
See River Birch House
Essential Elements
- Low to medium pitched, hipped roof with dormers
and wide eaves - Square or nearly square plan with cubed form
- Balanced placement of windows, often wide in proportion,
special types in front but otherwise double-hung - Well defined, wide and deep entry porch
- Incorporated design elements from other styles, notably Colonial and Arts & Crafts
- Exterior cladding of brick, stucco, horizontal clapboard, and/or cedar shingles
- Roof dormers on one or more sides
- Use of local material for chimneys, foundations, and porch piers
- Windows, eaves, porches, and other design features are typically proportioned to
Apartments, Townhomes and Condominiums
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