American House Styles or Buildings From the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries, Research Paper Example

The paper is based on the buildings or housing style of the American architecture from 18^th to 21^st centuries. There will be five pictures showing the different architectural styles of American building from 18^th century till present. The core objective of the paper is to identify the factors that influenced the design and architecture of American buildings over the past centuries. In these five images the characteristic feature and the historical influence will be described and its evidence will be shown in the image clearly. The emphasis is more on the roof pitch, architectural style, doors and windows style, ornamentation, building materials and the decorative characteristics of these building. As this research identifies the historical buildings of America, so the architectural façade will portray the iconic and symbolic features of the buildings in the specific periods.

American housing styles in the 18^th Century

In this era, the fundamental architectural design was labelled as ‘Georgian’ and it was used in the colonies of English in America. This era was the period of American Revolution and the building’s design was based on the three English Kings George I, II & III. This architecture is labeled as Georgian comprise of 3 separate housing styles. One is Sir Christopher Wren’s Baroque idiom; second is the Renaissance architecture which was known as the Palladian Style. This design introduced the symmetrical and balanced features because of which the design of Georgian are renowned for. The third phase of the American housing style architecture was the neoclassical style. This comprise of the Roman and Greek architectural principles, as can be seen in the image of ‘Longfellow House’. The front entrance, doors comprises of two pillars and are shaped in Roman style. There are numerous examples of the housing buildings in the 18^th century of America. These includes the Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, Boston’s King Chapel and the famous building of Georgia i.e. ‘The White House’ in Washington.

American buildings in the 19^th Century

American housing style in this century was influenced greatly by the previous movements of architecture. These movements included the exotic and foreign styles which were introduced in the housing styles and building because of the introduction of the new technologies in the modern age. We can see the revival of the Renaissance, Gothic and Greek architecture as these housing styles were fused with the modern engineering procedures and materials. In the world of the West, the emphasis of architecture was mostly on the historical culture and empires. So, the architectural housing style and buildings of America were inspired by the national nostalgia of the past. The major housing styles and buildings in this era comprises of the Gothic Revival (1810-1900), Revival of Greek Architecture (1800-1900); Richardson Romanesque and the Neo-Renaissance; Skyscraper architecture and the Industrial Architecture (1850-1900).

Characteristics of the Building: The major characteristics that differentiate the architecture of 19^th century were that the architecture involves the use of different historical styles. This was because of the introduction of the modern structures and the new materials used in construction. As we can see the image of ‘Nassau Hall, Princeton’; it is the mixture of both the Gothic and the Greek features and is one of the oldest buildings in the University of Princeton. Other famous buildings involve the Baltimore Basilica (1806-1821), Brighton’s Royal Pavilion (1815-1823), Cambridge’s Downing College (1807-1820) and the Rotunda, Virginian University (1822-1826) etc. The historical influence in the architecture of American buildings first arose from the production of the modern societies. Due to the emergence of industrialization in this era, the production boosted, so the architectures considered to continue with the traditional historical architecture. The buildings such as the Opera houses, town halls, legislatures and the railway stations are restraint to the careful application and taste of the classical standard applications. This has characterized the 19^th century architecture of American buildings and gave creative styles which are bombastic, quaint to the modern eyes and are seen with curiosity.

Characteristics of the Building: The second main feature of the American buildings emerged from the production of new materials that were the outcome of the new industrial requirements. From the perspective of buildings, new types were demanded such as the warehouses, factories, hospitals, administrative centers and the railway terminal. The introduction of cast iron in the middle of 19^th century resulted in the construction of the large structural buildings like libraries and warehouses. An example is the Crystal Palace in the year 1851 designed by Joseph Paxton. This building provided a spectacular instance of the applications of glass and cast iron.

 In short, we can say that the 19^th century architectural buildings of America were designed based on the Greek or Roman architecture, also called as the ‘Federal style’. The famous exponents and architects of this era included Thomas Jefferson, Charles Bulfinch and William Thornton. After that came the Gothic revival era which was led by the architect Richard Upjohn, James Renwick and Jackson Downing. The revival of Renaissance was by Morris Hunt and the Romanesque architecture was introduced by Hobson Richardson.

American buildings in the 20^th Century

Characteristics of the Building: In this era, the emergence of the industrial technologies and the modernization of the buildings resulted in the use of steel frameworks. These allowed the introduction of the first skyscraper building designed by Sullivan. He introduced the supporting skeleton of the building to be left visible and didn’t eliminated his decorations. He emphasized the vertical elements of support, the outline of the lower flows and the entrances of this buildings were rational and spare. Sullivan designed the skyscrapers by segmenting them into 3 functional areas. One is the large access floor area, the attic at the top of the building and central shaft (with number of floors indeterminate). The introduction of buildings like skyscraper revolutionize the architecture in this era. The famous buildings in this era are, the Auditorium building in Chicago, St Louis and Guaranty building.

Characteristics of the Building: This era is known as the modernist American architectural era. This term is applied because of the varying movements of modernism at the turn of the 20^th century. This era witnessed the rapid advancement in technology and society modernization. This era gained popularity after the Second World War and this modernism of architecture was adopted by various architectural educators. The dominant feature of the buildings and architecture in this era is the corporate buildings and the institutions. The characteristics of the buildings in this era includes the visual expression structure, concept of ‘Truth to materials’, use of industrially produced materials, International style of modernism, machine aesthetic adoption, graphical designing and the notion of ‘Form Follows function’. The famous building in this era includes the World Trade Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, The Lincoln Memorial, The Palazzo, and Trump World Tower etc.