Architecture in the United States

The architecture of the United States shows many different styles and building designs from over two hundred years of history. It began when the land was ruled by Spanish, French, Dutch, and British people, and it continued to grow after the country became independent.

Over time, many things inside and outside the country changed how buildings were made. Each place in the United States also had its own special ways of building. All together, the architecture tells a story of creativity and new ideas. It is a rich mix of many different styles that came together over time.

Pre-Columbian

Further information: Pueblo architecture and Pre-Columbian era

Cliff Palace, an ancient dwelling complex in Colorado

The oldest buildings still standing in the land we now call the United States were built by the Ancient Pueblo People in the four corners area. The Tiwa speaking people have lived in Taos Pueblo for over 1000 years. Some villages of the Algonquian people, like Pomeiooc and Section in what became coastal North Carolina, have been there since the late 1500s. An artist named John White visited the Roanoke Colony for 13 months and drew more than 70 pictures of the local people, plants, and animals.

The Hawaiian Islands are far from North America, so they had a long time to develop their own style of building before others came. Early buildings there show the influence of Polynesian traditions and the rich culture of Hawaii. Later buildings from the late 1800s mix many outside styles, like Victorian, Georgian, and early 1900s Spanish Colonial Revival.

Colonial

Main article: American colonial architecture

Further information: European colonization of the Americas

When Europeans first came to North America, they brought their own ways of building homes and structures. The oldest buildings in America show examples of this. Builders used what materials they could find nearby. In places like New England and along the coast of the South, wood and brick were common. This building style changed the homes of the local people, whose own ways of building were not used anymore.

Spanish influences

Main article: Spanish Colonial architecture

Further information: Spanish colonization of the Americas

Thomas Jefferson designed his Neoclassical estate, Monticello, in Virginia.

Spanish architecture in the United States looked different from the styles used in other parts of America. In states such as Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Florida, and Georgia, Spanish designs were used, especially for important buildings. The Spanish built these structures without worrying too much about cost, as they believed they would stay forever.

Florida

Further information: Spanish missions in Florida and Spanish missions in Georgia

Spanish colonial architecture was built in Florida and the Southeastern United States from 1559 until 1821. One special style called the conch style is seen in Pensacola, Florida and other parts of Florida. This style includes balconies with iron decorations, similar to those in the mostly Spanish-built French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Big fires in 1788 and 1794 destroyed many older French buildings in New Orleans. Many of the city's present buildings, founded in 1565, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. St. Augustine, the first city in North America with continuous European settlement, began in 1565. Starting in 1598, a special kind of rock called coquina from Anastasia Island was used to build homes, gates, churches, and forts in the city. Coquina is made from small shells and works like limestone. Today, St. Augustine remains one of the few places in the United States where you can still see 17th-century Spanish colonial architecture.

Southwest

Further information: Pueblo architecture, Spanish missions in New Mexico, Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert, and Spanish missions in Arizona

San Miguel Chapel, built in 1610 in Santa Fe, is the oldest church structure in the United States.

Spanish explorers came to the dry areas of the present-day Southwestern United States in the 1540s. They met the Pueblo people, who built homes from adobe, a kind of sun-dried clay brick. Their homes were simple, cool, and arranged closely together. The Spanish took over these areas and made Pueblo de Santa Fe the main city of the Santa Fe de Nuevo México Province in 1609. The Palace of the Governors, built between 1610 and 1614, mixes Pueblo and Spanish styles. It is long with a patio. The Mission San Francisco de Asis in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, built in the 1770s, also used adobe, giving it a strong, simple look. Later, a style called Pueblo Revival Style architecture developed in this area. The Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, Arizona has detailed designs from southern New Spain. Its front has two tall towers, and the main door is framed by special shapes called estipites.

California province

Main article: Architecture of the California missions

In the late 1700s, the Spanish set up a series of presidios (forts) in the upper Las Californias Province to protect against Russian and British visitors. They built forts in places like Presidio of San Diego, Presidio of Santa Barbara, Presidio of Monterey, and Presidio of San Francisco. From 1769 to 1823, religious leaders called the Franciscans created a line of twenty-one Missions in California. These missions had a big effect on later building styles in the area. One example of a home from that time is the Casa de la Guerra in Santa Barbara.

Dutch influences

Main article: Dutch colonial architecture

Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, Arizona

Dutch settlers arrived around 1630 in New Amsterdam and the Hudson River Valley, now part of New York, and in Bergen, now part of New Jersey. At first, they built small one-room houses with stone walls and steep roofs to allow for a second floor. By about 1670, two-story houses with gabled ends became common in New Amsterdam.

French influences

Main article: French colonial architecture

French Colonial style developed in places like the Illinois Country and French Louisiana. It was mostly influenced by building styles from French Canada and the Caribbean. It began in 1699 when French Louisiana was established but continued even after Spain took control in 1763. During this time, styles like the Creole cottage, Creole townhouse, and French Creole plantation house were created.

English influences

Further information: British colonization of the Americas

Excavations at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English-speaking settlement founded in 1607, have found parts of the triangular James Fort and many items from the early 1600s. Nearby Williamsburg was Virginia's colonial capital and is now a popular tourist spot showing an 18th-century town.

Mission San Juan Capistrano

In 1657, the New World had about 200,000 people, and ninety percent came from England. They used the same simple building methods as people in their home countries. Because they were often looking for money, early homes looked like simple village houses and small farms. The buildings had a very plain look and used few imported materials. Windows were very small because glass was rare and expensive—it was made in England and had only recently been improved there. Early homes had tiny windows with small pieces of glass held together by lead, like old church windows. In the 1700s, many of these houses were updated with new windows called sash windows, invented by Robert Hooke. These windows had one panel of glass that could slide up behind another.

Timber, especially white and red cedar, was easy to find for settlers in the English colonies, so many houses were made of wood. Decoration was usually very simple, but one small detail was sometimes added to the front door using nails to create a pattern or picture. The most important part of a house was often the chimney. Large and usually made of brick or stone, chimneys became popular between 1600 and 1715. Before this, people heated their homes with a wood fire in the middle of the room, but the smoke escaped through windows and vents. With coal becoming common in England during the Tudor period, this method no longer worked because the smoke was too thick and sticky. A chimney contained the smoke and made heating easier.

The oldest remaining building in Plymouth, Massachusetts is the Harlow Old Fort House, built in 1677 and now a museum. The Fairbanks House (around 1636) in Dedham, Massachusetts is the oldest wood-frame house still standing in North America. Several important buildings from the colonial era remain in Boston. Boston's Old North Church, built in 1723, was designed like the works of Sir Christopher Wren and became a model for later church designs in the United States.

Georgian architecture

Main article: Georgian architecture

The Georgian style became popular in the 1700s, and Palladian architecture appeared in colonial Williamsburg in the Colony of Virginia. The Governor's Palace, built between 1706 and 1720, had a big gabled entrance at the front. It followed the rule of symmetry and used materials found in the Tidewater region of the Mid-Atlantic colonies: red brick, white-painted wood, and blue slate roofs with double slopes. This style was used for homes of wealthy plantation owners in the countryside and rich merchants in towns.

In religious buildings, common features included brick, stone-like stucco, and a single tower on top of the entrance. Examples are Saint Paul's Church (1761) in Mount Vernon, New York and Saint Paul's Chapel (1766) in New York, New York. Architects during this time were more influenced by European designs. Peter Harrison (1716–1755) used his European knowledge to design the Redwood Library and Athenaeum (built in 1748 and 1761) in Newport, Rhode Island, which is now the oldest library in the United States still in its original building. Boston and Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were two main cities where the Georgian style was used, though in a simpler way than in England, fitting the limits of colonial life.

Architecture for a new nation

In 1776, the Continental Congress declared the Thirteen Colonies independent, ending rule by other countries. After the American Revolutionary War, the United States of America became a new republic. Even though it was no longer under English rule, many buildings still showed English style. As the country grew, new buildings for government and business appeared, using designs from ancient Rome and Greece to show the new nation’s democracy.

The Federal style of architecture began in the 1780s, showing its own American style. Houses had curved lines and decorations like garlands. Famous architects like Charles Bulfinch built important buildings such as the Massachusetts State House with a golden dome. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, loved architecture and helped design buildings like the University of Virginia and his home, Monticello.

Massachusetts State House, Boston, Massachusetts (1795–1798)

The country’s new capital, Washington, D.C., became a showcase for grand buildings. The United States Capitol and the White House were built there, showing the nation’s pride. The Washington Monument, a tall Obelisk for George Washington, was also built in this city.

In the South, many homes were built on plantations. These homes often showed styles from Europe, while the homes of enslaved people used simpler designs suited to local traditions.

Main article: Federal architecture

Virginia State Capitol

Frontier vernacular

Mid-19th century

Greek Revival

Italianate

Gothic Revival

Starting in the 1840s, the Gothic Revival style grew popular in the United States, thanks to Andrew Jackson Downing. He liked Medieval designs, such as chimneys, gables, towers, special windows, gargoyles, stained glass, and steep roofs. These buildings had detailed and balanced designs.

Rich families on the east coast built big homes in this style. Some used ideas from old houses like Strawberry Hill House. Architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed many homes along the Hudson River Valley, mixing Gothic and other styles. One famous home is "Lyndhurst" in Tarrytown, New York.

In New York City, James Renwick Jr built Saint Patrick Cathedral, inspired by famous European cathedrals. He also built the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., using many different styles.

Richard Upjohn was known for designing churches, including "Trinity Church" in New York. The Gothic Revival style was also used for universities like Yale and Harvard, and even for tall buildings called Skyscrapers in cities like Chicago and New York.

An [Carpenter Gothic](/wiki/Carpenter_Gothic) home (1860) in [Braceville Township, Ohio](/wiki/Braceville_Township,_Ohio)

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Richard Upjohn's entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery (1860s)

[West Virginia Penitentiary](/wiki/West_Virginia_Penitentiary) (1867–1876), [Moundsville, West Virginia](/wiki/Moundsville,_West_Virginia)

[St. Mary's Catholic Church](/wiki/St._Mary's_Catholic_Church_\(Indianapolis,_Indiana\)) (1910), Indianapolis, Indiana

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Raymond Hood's Tribune Tower (1925) in Chicago

Yale's [Collegiate Gothic](/wiki/Collegiate_Gothic) [Sterling Memorial Library](/wiki/Sterling_Memorial_Library) (1930)

Gilded Age and late 1800s

Further information: Gilded Age

Late Victorian architecture

Further information: Victorian architecture

After the American Civil War and into the early 1900s, many building styles appeared. These are often called "Victorian" because they were popular during the time Queen Victoria ruled in Britain. Famous architects like Richard Morris Hunt, Frank Furness, and Henry Hobson Richardson helped shape these styles.

One style was the Stick Style, which used wooden rods to support buildings. It was used for homes, hotels, and train stations. These buildings had tall, steep roofs and lots of decorations. Later, this style changed into the Queen Anne Style. On the West Coast, places like San Francisco showed many Victorian styles, using strong Redwood wood that helped buildings survive earthquakes.

On the East Coast, the Queen Anne style turned into the Shingle Style architecture. This style looked more relaxed and natural. Architects like Richardson and Charles Follen McKim built beautiful homes using this style.

While many buildings looked medieval, some rich people wanted homes that looked like European palaces. One famous example is the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, which looks like a French castle.

Rise of the skyscraper

Main articles: Chicago school (architecture) and Early skyscrapers

The skyscraper was a big change in building design in the United States. New inventions made this possible. In 1853, Elisha Otis created a safety elevator that stopped cars from falling if the rope broke. This allowed buildings to grow taller than five stories. The first building to use an elevator was New York City's Equitable Life Building.

As buildings grew taller, engineers found new ways to support them. William LeBaron Jenney used steel frames in Chicago's Home Insurance Building in 1885. This was the first true skyscraper. Later, buildings like the Reliance Building in Chicago used big windows because the outer walls no longer held up the building.

Beaux-Arts and the American Renaissance

Main articles: Beaux-Arts architecture, American Renaissance, and City Beautiful

The World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 showed off the Beaux-Arts style. This style became very popular, and architects like those in the firm McKim, Mead and White used it in many buildings.

The Exposition also showed the importance of planning cities beautifully. Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed New York's Central Park, helped plan the Exposition and many other parks and cities.

The Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial are examples of Beaux-Arts style. The Lincoln Memorial looks like an ancient Greek temple, with 36 columns representing the 36 states when Lincoln died. The Jefferson Memorial imitates the Pantheon in Rome.

Early suburbs (1890–1930)

With the rise of electric streetcars, suburbs began to grow around big cities. Bicycles and cars made it easier for people to live outside the city. This period saw the creation of a special type of American home called the American Foursquare.

The Arts and Crafts movement brought beautiful, simple designs to homes. Famous architects like Greene and Greene built amazing houses such as the Gamble House (Pasadena, California). Other designers like Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan also created wonderful buildings.

Frank Lloyd Wright became well-known for his unique style, especially houses like Robie House and Fallingwater. Many homes were also sold through catalogs, making it possible for people to build quality houses from pre-designed plans.

Main articles: American Craftsman and Arts and Crafts movement

Greene and Greene – Gamble House (Pasadena, California), Robert R. Blacker House, Thorsen House
Bernard Maybeck – Swedenborgian Church (San Francisco, California)
Mary Jane Colter – Mary Jane Colter Buildings
Julia Morgan – Asilomar Conference Grounds
Lummis House
Adirondack Architecture, Log home

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School

Frank Lloyd Wright – List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, List of Frank Lloyd Wright works by location
- Taliesin East, Taliesin West
- Robie House, Ennis House, Fallingwater, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Catalog Homes

Main article: Sears Catalog Home

Revivalism in the 20th century

The idea of bringing back old building styles continued from the 1800s into the 1900s. These new styles focused more on features special to different places in the United States and also borrowed ideas from other countries. This happened as more middle-class people started traveling.

Mediterranean Revival

Main article: Mediterranean Revival architecture

In the early 1900s, a style called Mediterranean Revival became popular for big homes. One famous example is Hearst Castle on the Central Coast of California, designed by architect Julia Morgan. Another well-known home is Filoli in the San Francisco Bay Area, designed by Willis Polk and located in Woodside, California. The Dumbarton Oaks estate in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. also shows this style, with beautiful gardens designed by Beatrix Farrand. The Harold Lloyd Estate, called "Greenacres" in Beverly Hills, California, is another important example from the 1920s.

Spanish Colonial Revival

Main articles: Mission Revival architecture and Spanish Colonial Revival architecture

In 1915, the Panama–California Exposition showed a new style inspired by old Spanish buildings in Mexico. Architects Bertram Goodhue and Carleton Winslow Sr. used this style, which became known as Spanish Colonial Revival. This style became well-known across the United States.

George Washington Smith, who worked in Montecito and Santa Barbara, designed a beautiful home called Casa del Herrero in 1926. Along with other architects like Bertram Goodhue and Wallace Neff, he created many homes in California during this time. Examples include the Santa Barbara County Courthouse and the Mission Inn in Riverside, California.

Georgian Revival

The Georgian style was common in the United States during the time when it was a British colony. A good example is the Mount Pleasant mansion in Philadelphia, built between 1761 and 1762. In the early 1900s, people started bringing back this style because they liked its orderly look. From 1910 to 1930, about 40% of new homes in the United States were built in this Colonial Revival style. Even after World War II, simpler versions of this style were still used.

Other colonials

Colonial Revival architecture – American Colonial
- Cape Cod style
Dutch Colonial Revival architecture
Tudor Revival architecture
Pueblo Revival architecture

Exotic revivals

Moorish Revival architecture, often used in Shriner temples and movie theatres.
Mayan Revival architecture
Egyptian Revival architecture

Style Moderne and the Interwar skyscraper

Main articles: Art Deco and Streamline Moderne

One important early skyscraper was New York City's Woolworth Building, designed by architect Cass Gilbert in 1913. It stood 793 feet tall and was the world's tallest building until 1930. Frank Woolworth loved gothic cathedrals, so Cass Gilbert designed the building with beautiful Gothic revival details. The building's entrance and lobby show symbols of saving money, like an acorn growing into an oak tree. The Woolworth Building inspired many other tall buildings to use Gothic revival designs until the art deco style became popular.

New rules were made for how tall buildings could be built. New York City created a zoning law in 1916 that said buildings could be very tall, but they had to get smaller as they went up. The Woolworth Building is an example of this style, sometimes called "wedding cake" skyscrapers.

Another famous building is Chicago's Tribune Tower. Many architects entered the competition to design it, and some of their ideas helped shape modern architecture. One architect, Eliel Saarinen submitted a modernist design, and another, Walter Gropius, brought attention to the Bauhaus school of design.

The tallest buildings of this time included the Woolworth Building in 1913, 40 Wall Street, the Chrysler Building in 1930, and New York's Empire State Building in 1931.

Post-War housing

The 1944 G. I. Bill of Rights helped change how people lived in the United States. With help from the government, more people could buy homes. Cars became more common, and new roads were built, so many people chose to live farther from where they worked. This led to the growth of areas outside cities called suburbs.

During this time, some new housing was also built in city areas. Projects like Pruitt-Igoe and Cabrini-Green were created, but over time these buildings began to need a lot of repairs.

Modernism and reactions

Further information: Modern architecture

Interest in making buildings simpler inside and out grew because of work by Irving Gill. He built houses in California in the 1910s with flat roofs, like the Walter Luther Dodge house in Los Angeles. Rudolf M. Schindler and Richard Neutra brought European modern ideas to California in the 1920s. They created homes such as the Lovell Beach House in Newport Beach and Schindler House in West Hollywood.

International style (architecture)

Further information: Mid-Century modern, Googie architecture, and Futurist architecture

Further information: Brutalist architecture and High-tech architecture

Antoine Predock – CLA Building, Flint RiverQuarium, McNamara Alumni Center

European architects who moved to the United States before World War II helped create a big change in architecture called the International Style. The Lever House showed a new way to design tall buildings with lots of glass, and it is in Manhattan. Two important architects from this time were Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, who both led a famous design school in Germany called the Bauhaus.

The United Nations headquarters, built in 1949–1950 by Oscar Niemeyer, was the first building with complete glass walls.

American government buildings and tall buildings from this time are called Federal Modernism. These buildings are simple and geometric. Some people love them as symbols of American culture and success, while others think they look too plain.

Tall hotels became popular when John Portman built the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel in Atlanta, followed by his Renaissance Center in Detroit, which is still the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere.

Architecture as an American profession

Further information: Architect

Education and practice

The formal education and practice of architecture in the United States began in the early 19th century. Leaders like Thomas Jefferson saw the need for trained architects to support the growing nation. Before this, people learned architecture by working with skilled craftsmen, which was not always reliable. At that time, most architects were wealthy, white men who studied in France at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.

This led to the creation of formal architecture education about 150 years ago. The approach included learning design through competitions judged by experts, studying great artists, and exploring many cultures. It did not focus much on scientific research. Today, only a few architecture schools offer advanced research programs. There are over 83,000 members in the American Institute of Architects, and around 105,847 licensed architects in the United States. Architecture firms employ about 158,000 people. Many architecture and related jobs are still mostly filled by white professionals.