Appreciate Local Architecture – Mpls.St.Paul Magazine

When we speak about true estate, we gossip: selling price, tackle, status. When we speak about architecture, we pontificate: blah, blah, blah. But talking—knowledgeably—about homes doesn’t demand an sophisticated degree. In truth of the matter, we’re all finding out structures these times on these marathon walks via our neighborhoods. So what do you simply call these homes with the half-timbered beams? What is the variation among Italianate and Queen Anne? Browse this (drawn from well known homes in the Cities), print it out, and get prepared to lecture your (gossipy) buddies.

Prairie (Foursquare type) 

(1905–1920)

Glimpse for a flattish (hipped) roof with prolonged eaves and rows of patterned home windows (a fortune to switch!). Possibly stucco, wooden, or brick with weighty sq. columns. The massing may resemble a series of squares with no very clear center.

Craftsman/Arts and Crafts/Bungalow 

(1890s–present)

You know these homes! Usually one particular or one particular and a half stories. Open entrance porch, held up by tapered columns. Stucco, maybe wooden. Bands of attractive woodwork and leaded home windows. Ubiquitous and beloved: the residence type of the Twin Cities.

Richardsonian Romanesque 

(1880s–1900)

It is weighty, brother: The masonry walls (frequently stone, from time to time brick), the cone-roofed towers, the arched home windows and entrances with squat columns, the slate or tiled roofs. Seems like Minneapolis Metropolis Hall—minus the clock and the bells.

Queen Anne 

(1880s–1890s)

Towers? Turrets? Cupolas? Domes? Bizarre rooflines? Porches? Patterned shingles? Gingerbread posts and turned woodwork? Certainly, certainly, yes—yes to every thing! These are “Victorian” architecture—often as superior kitsch. 

Italianate 

(1850s–1870s)

Assume tall (two or three stories) and frequently squarish. The home windows will be tall and impractically arched at the top rated. Superfluous cupola or sq. tower? Why not! Glimpse for reduced-pitched roofs brackets stone, wooden, or brick façades and a Charles Adams gloom.

Tudor (Cotswold type) 

(1920s–present)

A suburban fave. Older and more intended examples include things like steep rooflines, triangular gables, multi-pane home windows, and attractive half-timbered beams. If the residence appears Hobbity—false thatched roof, mushroomy massing—think Cotswold.