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gamecock43

Favorite architechure?

gamecock43
14 years ago

I am curious to see what house style is the most popular. American houses have gone from Federal to Victorian to Craftsman, Tudor, Georgian, Ranch, Split level, and Mcmansion (though not sure if that is a house style) with so many other styles I cant even recall.

I have always loved Queen Anne Victorian homes with the big porches, bright colors, and detailed...everything. Though I love the Vicorians I ended up buying a foursquare craftsman and have learned to have a healthy appreciation for craftsman houses.

So what is your favorite house style?

Comments (21)

  • blueheron
    14 years ago

    I think Federal. I love those old New England houses and the ones here where I live.

  • cordovamom
    14 years ago

    I'm partial to the antebellum styles of the old south -- but do have a love of Queen Anne and Victorian.

  • weed30 St. Louis
    14 years ago

    Mid Century Modern. And for the record, I loved it way before it was trendy!

  • gamecock43
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Mid century modern I never got. What is the appeal? The clean lines maybe?

  • ballysharon
    14 years ago

    I love cottage-y craftsman style homes

  • C Marlin
    14 years ago

    Do I need to pcik just one??

    I love Mid-Century Modern, is it trendy? I love driving around Palm Springs just looking at them.

    I love Craftsman and Arts & Craft, they always look comfortable.

    The house I'm in now is none of the above. It is not strongly any style, straight lines, but soft, not really contemporary, but a little contemporary feel to it. It is a casual beach house, I like that it is not a strong style. I am surrounded by strong contemporary with steel and mahogany. Ten years from now when the fad has faded, they will dated.

  • jakkom
    14 years ago

    Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie and Usonian homes. An incredible breakthrough in livability in urban spaces compared to what was being done at the times.

    Susan Susanka's inspiring attempt to bring thoughtful design to the American suburban mindset in her "Not So Big" book series.

  • blueheron
    14 years ago

    What is mid-century modern?

  • laxsupermom
    14 years ago

    I love little craftsman bungalows and FLW Prairie homes. I, however, live in a 60's raised ranch tract home. :(

  • azmom
    14 years ago

    Pacific Northwest and Modern Minimalist.

  • C Marlin
    14 years ago

    Here is some descriptions of mid-century modern.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Mid Century Modern Features

  • User
    14 years ago

    MCM for me.

  • elle481
    14 years ago

    Mid Century Modern or a well designed Contemporary. ~L

  • TxMarti
    14 years ago

    I love the Victorian homes too. Love the big porches, the gingerbread trim, tall ceilings, fireplace in every room, big wide staircase, just everything about them.

  • sweeby
    14 years ago

    I love virtually all of the styles when they're located in the appropriate spot --

    - French or New Orleans style in New Orleans (but not in Dallas)
    - Low Country in South Carolina or Louisiana (but not Denver!)
    - Hill Country in central Texas
    - Victorian or Italianate in San Francisco or Seattle
    - Mid-Century Modern in northern California
    - Farmhouses in farm country (but not stacked next to each other in suburban tracts)
    - Salt Boxes in New England (but not in Houston)
    - Elegant row houses in most urban areas (but not next to large tracts of vacant land in outer suburbia -- WTH?)
    - Georgians or Federals in older cities on larger lots
    - Cape Cods east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason Dixon line
    - Florida style in Florida
    - Adobes in the southwest
    - Bungalows in urban neighborhoods with other bungalows
    - Tudors in areas with large trees
    - Mountain lodges in mountainous areas or on large ranches in the west
    - Spanish or Mediterranean in areas where that style has some genuine history
    - Shingle in coastal areas

    Bottom line -- I like almost any style in areas where it is well suited to the climate, topography and history of a region.
    And by the same logic, any style can look horribly out of place in the wrong locale.
    My city seems to be a huge mish-mash of disparate and clashing styles, with Moorish palaces plopped next to mid-century ranches next to classic brick Georgians and stucco Mediterranean or French Chateaus.
    Sure, too much conformity is a bad, bad thing.
    But too many strong styles plopped right next to each other is like wearing stripes, plaids and florals at the same time.

  • jakabedy
    14 years ago

    But sweeby, that leaves us nothing to live in in the bulk of the Old South! I suppose we've always got mobile homes . . .

    But seriously, my first love has always been 1920s homes: bungalows, tudors, Spanish. We had three of those in series but then made a lifestyle change to live more rurally -- couldn't find those houses out in the country, but we found a great MCM. We've had fun shifting from barley twist to Danish modern. But of course I'm drawn to any sort of interesting house.

    Usonians are wonderful, as another poster mentioned. I love some of the new modern designs. And I still have a weakness for 1920 plaster and lath -- my first house was a little Tudor bungalow, and it still defines "home" for me.

  • blueheron
    14 years ago

    I want to expand my choice - my favorite house is a Pennsylvania stone farmhouse with a springhouse, a cottage garden, a vegetable garden and a big country kitchen.

    Sigh...

  • Nancy in Mich
    14 years ago

    Golly, there is what I "like" and there is what I buy.....

    I like Craftsman homes, with built-in bookcases around the oak fireplace,a bump-out in the dining room for the built-in buffet, wide oak natural woodwork galore, oak staircases that turn at a landing with a little stained-glass window, laundry chute and linen closet in the upstairs hall, and a third-storey walk-in attic. I almost bought that house on Smith St. in Lansing, MI, but I was in graduate school and it made no sense to buy when I did not yet have a job. I like the Craftsman bungalows, too. Big porches, swings, windows all across the front.

    I have bought only ranches. I have been told since I was 14 that I cannot "do" stairs. :-(

    When I was doing virtual house hunting in cities DH was interviewing in, I fell in love with a modern home all built around a small open glass atrium. I would love a sunny home like that.

  • thisishishouse
    14 years ago

    Richardson Romanesque. Lots of these in my area, both public buildings and private homes. They convey strength and permanence.

  • lyfia
    14 years ago

    Italianate or Queen Anne Victorian styles, followed by Craftsman.

  • brutuses
    14 years ago

    Southern Louisiana Acadian style aka low country house that Sweeby mentions. That's the style of our new house we built.

    Since Katrina we now have lots of stucco front houses, some with front porches with extended roof lines, all around my city (suburb outside of N.O.). My neighbors took their solid brick front ranch and coated it with stucco and changed the architecture on the posts and it looks like a completely different house. The Mexican laborers came here and changed, for the better, the faces of thousands of homes. Only problem with stucco down here is it will crack and need repair regularly because down here we are sinking all the time. We were all built on a marsh and not everyone has pilings under their homes. The one reason why we didn't jump on that stucco craze. There's a reason why certain house structures are seen in certain parts of the country and not in others.

    The smart people who unfortunately lost everything in Katrina, raised their houses and turned them into Acadian's instead of Hacienda's. We fortunately didn't lose anything so had no need to make any structural changes.