HistoricOmaha

Bill Stott has been kind enough to share his presentation from Monday’s DMPA meeting. I have uploaded a PDF version (3.6MB) to the Dundee Yahoo! grop here. Note: You will probably need to join the group to be able to see or download the PDF. I have also uploaded images of the presentation to the Flickr Set Historic Styles. A text outline of his presentation is below.

Houses of Historic Dundee

William J Stott, AIA
The Architectural Offices

What is Style

style constitutes a mode of classifying architecture largely by morphological characteristics in terms of form, techniques, materials, etc.

• It reflects the culture and socio-economic climate of the time
• Architectural

Is there an American Style?

Adams vs Jefferson or, Who are we?

or Federal vsRepublic
or Greek Democracy vs Roman Republic
or Greek Revival vs Roman Revival

Dundee Village

Incorporated on December 8, 1894

Victorian Styles

Second Empire
Victorian
Queen Anne

Queen Anne Style

Queen Anne became an architectural fashion in the 1880s and 1890s, when the industrial revolution was building up steam. North America was caught up in the excitement of new technologies. Factory-made, precut architectural parts were shuttled across the country on a rapidly expanding train network. Exuberant builders combined these pieces to create innovative, and sometimes excessive, homes. Ironically, the very qualities that made Queen Anne architecture so regal also made it fragile. These expansive and expressive buildings proved expensive and difficult to maintain. By the turn of the century, Queen Annes had fallen out of favor.

Queen Anne Characteristics

Queen Anne architecture is not orderly or easily classified. Bay windows, balconies, stained glass, turrets, porches, brackets and an abundance of decorative details combine in unexpected ways. The style is characterized by great complexity. Irregular massive, great variety of windows and sheathing material, complex roofs, filigree. The roof is steeply pitched and irregular. The overall shape of the house is asymmetrical.

The City Beautiful Movement

World’s Columbian Exposition , 1893
The White City

World’s Columbian Exposition

Chicago World’s Fair
400th anniversary of Columbus sailing to the New World
Chicago was gutted by a great fire in 1871 that destroyed over 2,000 acres of the built environment
Population of US in 1890 62,947,714
Exposition attendance 27,500,000 (40% of US population)

The White City’s Effect

The Modern Movement was halted in favor or a more romantic view of the built environment. Home magazines were started and house plans began to circulate throughout the country. Millions brought back an idealized image of what they wanted their cities to look like. Some, however, were not happy to look to the past as a guide to the future.

The damage wrought by the World’s Fair will last for half a century from its date if not longer.
— Louis Sullivan, Chicago Architect

Trans-Mississippi Exposition-1898

Omaha, Nebraska

Pan-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco

Pan-California Exposition, San Diego 1915

Omaha Cathedral, 1916

Period (Romantic) Styles

Colonial Revival
Tudor Revival
Beaux Arts
Italian Rennassiance
Spanish Revival
Mission

Colonial Revival

The Colonial Revival style became popular in the late nineteenth century. It draws its inspiration from Georgian Colonial architecture. Buildings of this type have strictly symmetrical facades and are usually rectangular in plan with no or minimum projections. Eaves have classical detailing. Windows are usually double-hung sash except when Palladian windows are used for accent.

Georgian Revival Characteristics

Paneled front door, usually centered and capped by an elaborate decorative crown (entablature) supported by decorative pilasters (flattened columns). The main door is the principal ornamental feature of the Georgian facade. A cornice is usually emphasized by decorative moldings, most commonly with tooth-like dentils. Windows aligned horizontally and vertically in symmetrical rows, never in adjacent pairs, usually five-ranked on front facade, less commonly three- or seven-ranked. Floor plan is approximately square in shape. The four rooms on the main floor — two front and two back — are of about equal size and flank a central stair hall that extends throughout he depth of the house.

Dutch Colonial Revival Characteristics

Dutch Colonial Revival homes borrow the gambrel roof from the original style, but generally have a higher pitch and adapted form to gain higher ceilings and more comfortable living space. The overall plan tends to be symmetrical often with a center hall entrance. Like the original Dutch Colonial homes, revival homes were usually clad with cedar shingles and often left unpainted.

Tudor Revival Style

Tudor Revival derives its inspiration from early England. These buildings lavishly feature stone, ornate chimneys, half-timberings, thick walls, dark interiors, and steep rooflines. Some Tudor houses mimic humble Medieval cottages and may even include a false thatched roof. Other Tudor homes borrow ideas from late Medieval palaces with overlapping gables, parapets, and beautifully patterned brick or stonework. A “half-timbered” building has exposed wood framing. The spaces between the wooden timbers are filled with plaster, brick, or stone. In the U.S. however, half-timbering is only a decorative - albeit distinctive covering of frame construction.

Tudor Revival Characteristics

Decorative half-timbering
Steeply pitched roof
Prominent cross gables
Tall, narrow windows
Small window panes
Massive chimneys, often topped with decorative chimney pots

Italian Renaissance Revival Style

The Renaissance Revival style is based on the architecture of 16th-century Renaissance Italy and France, with additional elements borrowed from Ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The first phase, or the First Renaissance Revival, was from about 1840 to 1885, and the Second Renaissance Revival, which was characterized by larger and more elaborately decorated buildings, was from 1890 to 1915. Due to the expensive materials required and the elaborate style, Renaissance Revival was best suited for public and commercial buildings, and very grand homes for the wealthy. Interestingly, this period style tends to mimic their Italian counterparts more accurately than did the 19th-century Italianate style.

Italian Renaissance Revival Characteristics

Low-pitched, hipped roof, often with ceramic tiles and sometimes flat, hinting at its Mediterranean source region Wide, overhanging eaves with large brackets under the roofline Arched doors and windows, primarily on the first floor Italian-style entryway, often with classical columns; facade usually symmetrical, but occasionally found in asymmetrical or picturesque floor plans Eave brackets are typically rare on Spanish Revival and Mission-style buildings, thus making them a distinguishing feature of the Italian Renaissance period style.

Modern Styles

Craftsman/Bungalow
Prairie
American Foursquare

Prairie Style

Strong horizontal lines defined the Prairie Style. The open interiors, rows of small windows and art glass, coupled with the low-pitched roof create a warm, informal and inviting space that looked right at home on the wideopen spaces of the prairie. These homes blended in with and were intimately connected to the landscape. Unlike the ostentatious Victorian house, the Prairie Style house was conspicuously lacking in ornamentation. A variety of geometric shapes and forms inspired by nature were highlighted through window arrangement, columns, low walls and planters, creating a visually appealing home.

Prairie Charistericts

Features included one-story projections, belt-courses between the storys and oversized eaves which appear to spread out and hug the ground. Low-pitched roof Overhanging eaves Horizontal lines The open floor plan is arranged around a central chimney Rows of small windows

Craftsman Style

The Craftsman style is characterized by simplicity and lack of the fanciful ornamentation one finds in Victorian homes. Often credited to the Greene and Greene brothers and their architectural firm in Pasadena, CA. In 1902-1903, the Brothers were influenced by the vernacular style of board and shingle buildings in California.

Craftsman Characteristics

Low-pitched, gabled roof, wide overhang of eaves, exposed rafters under eaves, decorative (false) brackets under gables
Tapered, square columns supporting roof
4-over-1 or 6-over-1 sash windows, often with Frank Lloyd Wright design motifs
Hand- crafted stone or woodwork, often mixed materials throughout structure.

Bungalow Style

A subset of the Craftsman Style, the Bungalow emerged as a popular housing style in America from 1910 to 1930. Simpler than the Victorians that preceded them, bungalows are typically found parked in neat rows in city neighborhoods. The Bungalow is a one-story house with one or more low-pitched overhanging gables. Exposed beams and projecting brackets help to emphasize structural form and exude a “craft” esthetic, a characteristic of the style.

Bungalow Characteristics

There is a deliberate use of natural materials like wooden shingles and clapboards, cobblestones and rough-faced brick for exterior walls, porch columns and chimneys. Porches extend across the front of the house and are supported by wide squat or battered columns. Windows are usually casement or double-hung with many small single panes combined with larger single panes. Low-pitched roof Wide eaves with exposed roof rafters Incised porch (beneath main roof) Decorative braces Porch with square columns One or one and a half stories Built-in cabinets, shelves, and seating

American Foursquare Style

The American Foursquare or the Prairie Box was a postVictorian style which shared many features with the Prairie architecture pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright. Its boxy shape provided roomy interiors for homes on small city lots. Many Foursquares are trimmed with tiled roofs, cornice-line brackets, or other details drawn from Craftsman, Italian Renaissance, or Mission architecture. Later Foursquares often had the same type of interiors as Bungalows with open floor plans, lots of built-ins, and fireplaces.

American Foursquare Style

Popularized by pattern books and Sears Roebuck & Company mail order kits, the American Foursquare spread to residential neighborhoods throughout the United States. Sears also offered a machine that could manufacture cement blocks on site.

American Foursquare Characteristics

From the front, many foursquares are symmetrical with a center front door and equal groupings of windows on either side, upstairs and downstairs. Others have an offset front door but with upstairs windows being perfectly or nearly symmetrical. Simple box shape Two-and-a-half stories high Four-room floor plan Low-hipped roof with deep overhang Large central dormer with a roof form matching the main house roof Full-width porch with wide stairs Brick, stone or wood siding

What makes Dundee Different?