Acanthus:
A plant found on the shores of the Mediterranean and particularly admired by the Greeks and Romans for the elegance of its leaves. Found on many classical designs such as the Corinthian and Composite columns.
Acropolis:
The fortified height or citadel of an ancient Greek city. A raised area holding a building or cluster of buildings, especially in a pre-Columbian city.
Acroterion:
A classical ornament or crowning adorning a pediment usually at gable corners and crown, generally of monsters, sphinxes, griffins or gorgons, sometimes massive floral complexes.
Amorino:
Ornament from the Renaissance; little Italian chubby naked cupids.
Anthemion:
Greek ornament of alternating palmettes and lotus motifs or two types of palmettes (one open, one closed) usually found on a cornice or neck of Ionic capital; used a lot in the 1700s.
Apse:
The semicircular end of a basilica, often has a statue within it.
Arabesque:
Geometric intricate surface decoration; no human figures; has interlaced patterns.
Arcade:
A series of arches supported by columns or piers, it may be attached to a wall (blind) or freestanding.
Arch:
A method of spanning an opening, the curved or pointed top on a door or open entryway. Arches come in many different shapes and styles.
Architrave:
The lowest part of an entablature, or the molded frame around a door or window opening.
Art Deco:
A decorative and architectural style of the period 1925-1940, characterized by geometric designs, bold colors, and the use of plastic and glass.
Art Nouveau:
A style of decoration and architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized particularly by the depiction of leaves and flowers in flowing, sinuous lines.
Arts & Crafts:
A movement protesting industrialization, infusing the crafts back into the world we see and live in.
Ashlar:
Smooth square stones laid in a horizontal fashion; used for foundations or facing of masonry walls
Atrium:
An inner courtyard of a home or other building that is open to the sky or covered by a skylight.
Balcony:
A platform projecting from a wall, enclosed by a railing or balustrade, supported on brackets or cantilevered out.
Ball Flower:
Three leaves embracing a ball; 14th century Gloucester English design; also called “bell flower”.
Balloon Frame:
A system of framing a building in which wood studs extend in one piece from the top of the foundation sill-plate to the top roof plate; floor joists are nailed to the studs and are supported by horizontal boards. Fell out of style when it was noted that fires which broke out inside these buildings spread easily upwards through the walls.
Baluster:
A short curved or straight post or pillar in a series that supports a rail, thus forming a balustrade.
Balustrade:
A balustrade is a row of repeating balusters -- small posts which support the upper rail of a railing. Staircases and porches often have balustrades.
Bargeboard:
A board trim that is usually carved and projects from the gable line of a roof, used to hide the ends of the horizontal roof timbers.
Baroque:
Relating to the characteristics of a style in art and architecture developed in Europe from the early 17th to mid-18th century, emphasizing dramatic, often strained effect and typified by bold, curving forms, elaborate ornamentation, and overall balance of disparate parts. Marked by expressive dissonance and elaborate ornamentation.
Barrel Vault:
Or tunnel vault; a series of pressed-together arches, they were heavy and had enormous thrust or pressure downward and outward, usually had heavy walls because of this.
Baseboard:
A trim board attached as part of a base treatment to the bottom of a wall where it meets the floor.
Basilica:
A Christian church building of a similar design, having a nave with a semicircular apse, two or four side aisles, a narthex, and a clerestory.
Battered Chimney:
A brick or masonry chimney with sides that are graduated so that its rectangular shape is wider at the bottom than the top.
Battlements:
A battlement or a crenellation is a parapet with open spaces for shooting. The raised portions of a battlement are called merlons, and the openings are called embrasures. Masonry buildings in the Gothic Revival style may have architectural decoration which resembles battlements.
Bay Windows:
A projecting bay with windows that forms an extension to the interior floor space. On the outside, the bay should extend to ground level, in contrast to an oriel window which doesn’t touch the ground.
Bead Moulding:
A small, cylindrical Moulding enriched with ornaments resembling a string of beads.
Beaded Board:
Wood board paneling, also known as planking or wainscoting
Bellcast:
A curved shape resulting in a lower pitch at the bottom of a roof slope.
Belt-course:
A horizontal “belt” formed by a projecting course (or courses) in a masonry wall for decorative purposes.
Belvedere:
A tower or turret built for the purpose of giving a view.
Board and Batten:
A form of wood siding for exterior walls, consisting of long vertical boards and thin strips, or battens, which extend over adjacent boards or joints (the spaces between adjacent surfaces).
Bracket:
A small supporting piece of iron, wood or stone, often formed of scrolls or other decorative shapes, designed to sustain a projected weight, such as a window.
Broken Pediment:
A pediment over a a door, window or on a gable that is incomplete in the center of the bottom part of the triangle.
Bulls eye:
A small round decorative piece with a smaller circle inside of it resembling an eye.
Bungalow:
A small house or cottage usually having a single story and sometimes an additional attic story. Also a thatched or tiled one-story house in India surrounded by a wide verandah.
Buttress:
A projecting mass normally of brickwork or masonry that is used to support a structure; gives additional strength usually to counteract the outward thrust of an arch or vault.
Cabana:
A shelter on a beach or at a swimming pool used as a bathhouse. A cabin or hut.
Cabin:
A small, roughly built house; a cottage.
Cable Moulding:
Moulding that looks like rope.
Campanile:
Bell tower, cupola house on top - a small domelike structure on top of a roof or tower.
Canopy:
A projection or hood over a door, window, niche, etc.
Cantilever:
A beam or other structure projecting from a wall and supporting an extension to a building, as on a cantilevered balcony or upper store.
Cape Cod:
The original colonial Cape Cod homes were shingle-sided, one-story cottages with no dormers. A 20th-century Cape Cod is square or rectangular with one or one-and-a-half stories and steeply pitched, gabled roofs. It may have dormers and shutters. The siding is usually clapboard or brick.
Capital:
The head or crowning feature of a column.
Cartouche:
An oval tablet with an elaborate scroll-carved frame, used as ornamentation for building Mouldings, borders, panels, etc.
Caryatid:
Sculptured female figure used as a column to support an entablature.
Casement:
In a window refers to a vertical window hinged on its vertical side, meant to open either out or in.
Casing:
The general term for any wood that surrounds a door or window.
Cast iron:
A hard, brittle, nonmalleable iron-based alloy containing 2.0% to 4.5% carbon and 0.5% to 3% silicon, cast in a sand mold and machined to make many building products.
Ceiling Tin:
Tin with a pressed pattern was used to create decorative and functional ceilings in homes and commercial buildings from 1880’s-1920’s. It was a fast, beautiful and permanent way to avoid the painstaking application of plaster. The shortage of metal during WWII and the development of sheetrock curbed its use considerably.
Cella:
The main room of a temple - the narrow hall that ran the entire length of the temple.
Centering:
The wooden scaffolding that was set up so a true arch could be made.
Chair-rail Moulding:
A wooden Moulding placed along the lower part of the wall to prevent chairs, when pushed back, from damaging the wall. Also used as decoration.
"Chalet:
A wooden dwelling with a sloping roof and widely overhanging eaves, common in Switzerland and other Alpine regions.
A cottage or lodge built in this style.
"
Chateau:
A French castle. A French manor house. An estate where wine is produced and often bottled, especially in the Bordeaux region of France. A large country house.
Chevron:
A zigzag Moulding (like an upside down V) in Norman architecture, Romanesque.
Chimney Pot:
Tudor or Medieval Revival style buildings often have wide, very tall chimneys with round or octagonal "pots" on top of each flue. Multiple chimneys have separate flues, and each flue has its own chimney pot. Some chimney pots are beautifully decorated.
Choir:
Believed to be the most important part of the church in early Gothic cathedral architecture. It is the part between the nave and the main altar reserved for the choir and clergy.
Clapboard:
Horizontal or vertical siding that overlaps.
Clerestory:
The row of large windows in a church, basilica, or cathedral.
Coffered:
An ornamental sunken panel, especially in a ceiling. Used to save weight on domed ceilings in ancient architecture.
Colonial:
A house designed in an architectural style reminiscent of the one prevalent in the American colonies just before and during the Revolution.
Column:
A vertical support member, typically with a cylindrical or square shaft. Also called a pillar. Classical columns include a base, a shaft, and a capital.
Condominium:
A building or complex in which units of property, such as apartments, are owned by individuals and common parts of the property, such as the grounds and building structure, are owned jointly by the unit owners.
Coping:
When used to describe architectural features “coping” refers to the top layer of a brick or stone wall. It is usually built with a slope to shed water.
Coquina:
A material used with early Spanish Colonial styled buildings. It is made of limestone made of shell aggregate.
Corbel:
A bracket of stone, wood, brick, or other building material, projecting from the face of a wall and generally used to support a cornice or arch.
Corinthian column:
In classical architecture, a column decorated at the top with a mixed bag of curlicues, scrolls and other lavish ornamentation.
Cornice:
Any projecting ornamental Moulding that finishes or crowns the top of a building, wall, arch, etc.
Cottage:
A small, single-storied house, especially in the country. A small vacation house.
Cove Moulding:
The large concave Moulding produced by the sloped or arched junction of a wall and ceiling. Popular accent for dramatic living rooms.
Craftsman:
The style features overhanging eaves, a low-slung gabled roof, and wide front porches framed by pedestal-like tapered columns. Material often included stone, rough-hewn wood, and stucco. Many homes have wide front porches across part of the front, supported by columns.
Cresting:
A decorative fence-like ornament on the ridge of a roof.
Crocket:
Decorative feature in Gothic arch, carved in a variety of leaf shapes and projecting at regular intervals along a spiral or verge board.
Crown:
A decorative crown is something curved to form a half circle, top, or chief ornament.
Crown Moulding:
Dingle-piece Moulding that installs at an angle to it's adjoining surfaces. Typically used to adorn the intersection between a wall and ceiling.
Cupola:
A small dome, a rounded roof on a circular or polygonal base crowning a roof or turret. Also, a small, often squarish tower on a roof.
Dentil Moulding:
A Moulding with a pattern of alternating blocks and spacing.
Dentils:
Small tooth like projections adorning an area under an overhang; square blocks in series under a cornice.
Diamond Shingles:
Ornamental shingles that when overlapped form diamonds.
Diaper Pattern:
All-over surface decoration of a small repeated pattern such as squares or lozenges.
Dog Tooth:
A small square decoration that slopes to a point in the middle of the square.
Dome:
An arched roof or ceiling of even curvature erected on a circular or square base. Domes can be segmented, semicircular, pointed or bulbous. Often decorated with stained or painted glass. Adds light, color and drama to a room or foyer.
Doric column:
A Greek-style column with only a simple decoration around the top, usually a smooth or slightly rounded band of wood, stone or plaster.
Dormer:
A vertical window and window box that projects from a sloping roof, has its own roof, most commonly a pedimental or gable roof.
Double Hung:
Referring to a window with two vertical sliding sashes, one over the other.
Drip Moulding:
A projecting Moulding over doors, window, and archways to direct rain away from the opening.
Eastlake:
A style of ornamentation using numerously variegated Victorian designs including stick work, spindles and knobs, brackets, sawn scroll work, “free classical” detailing, Gothic additions, finials, roof cresting, towers and cupolas, oxbow, any number of scalloped styled siding.
Egg and Dart Moulding:
A Moulding pattern that includes egg-shaped relief carvings.
Egyptian Column:
Egyptian columns are thought to be modeled after the shape of the lotus flower indigenous to the Nile. These columns taper out at the top and are often ornamented with palm-like leaves near the capital.
Engaged Column:
Like the reed bundles and wooden supports that came before them that were set into mud-brick walls to strengthen them.
Entablature:
In classical architecture, the horizontal assembly supported by columns or other structure and constituting of an architrave, frieze, and cornice.
Entasis:
Slight convex curve applied to columns in Classical architecture to counter the illusion that would otherwise occur of the columns being slightly concave.
Estate:
A landed property, usually of considerable size.
Exedrae:
A portico or open room with seats in ancient Greece.
Eyebrow:
Roof windows that look like eyebrows.
Eyebrow Dormer:
A dormer that has a bell curve shape on top and a straight horizontal bottom. It looks a lot like an eyebrow, hence the name.
Façade:
The front elevation of a building.
Façade Dormer:
It is a dormer that is featured in the center roofline of the facade. Usually has a lancet window and verge board scroll sawn decor. Used in Gothic domestic architecture.
Fanlight:
A window, often semicircular, with radiating glazing bars suggesting a fan that is placed over a door.
Farmhouse:
A dwelling on a farm.
Federal:
Federal-style architecture coincided with a reawakening of interest in classical Greece and Rome. Builders began to add swags, garlands, elliptical windows, and other decorative details to rectangular Georgian houses. The style that emerged resembles Georgian, but is more delicate and more formal. Many Federal-style homes have an arched Palladian window on the second story above the front door. The front door usually has sidelights and a semicircular fanlight.
Festoon:
A carved or painted ornament in the form of a garland of fruit and flowers tied with ribbons and suspended at both ends in a loop; also called a swag.
Finial:
A formal ornamentation fixed to the top of a peak, arch, gable, etc.
Five Ranked:
Georgian-style homes almost always have five rectangular windows equally spaced across the second story.
Flat Arch:
An arch having a horizontal intrados with voussoirs radiating from a center below, often built with a slight camber to allow for setting. Also know as a “jack arch”.
Fleur de Lis:
French lily flower; heraldic flower with three petals forming a stylized lily.
Fluted:
Curved indentations that run up and down along a column’s shaft.
Fluting:
Shallow, concave grooves running vertically on the shaft of a column, pilaster or other surface.
Free Classical:
Classical ornamental forms that are not constricted to Classical proportions but are used freely.
French Arch:
A flat arch having voussoirs inclined to the same angle on each side of the center keystone.
French door:
A tall casement window that reaches to the floor and opens like a door. It is a popular accent that brings more light into a home.
French Provincial:
Balance and symmetry are the ruling characteristics of this formal style. Homes are often brick with detailing in copper or slate. Windows and chimneys are symmetrical and perfectly balanced, at least in original versions of the style. Defining features include a steep, high, hip roof; balcony and porch balustrades; rectangle doors set in arched openings; and double French windows with shutters. Second-story windows usually have a curved head that breaks through the cornice.
Fresco:
A technique of painting in which paint, generally watercolors, is applied on fresh wet stucco or plaster, with the colors being absorbed into the surface.
Fretwork:
Greek repeated rectangular pattern design only using straight lines throughout.
Fretwork Spandrels:
Made with intricate cutwork, skillfully joined with Ball & Dowel or Spindle sections. The lacy scrollwork was first hand cut, one piece at a time. Then, Ball & Dowel or Spindle sections were combined with this cutwork to create just the length required. Installed in positions of importance.
Frieze:
An architectural ornament consisting of a narrow piece of decoration along a wall, either inside a room or on the outside of a building just under the roof.
Furring Walls:
"Furring Out, " means setting off a new wall in front of one already built. This provides for dead air space the extra protection of the surface of the ":furred out" wall. The water proofing of the the building wall and the air space left between is a good guarantee against destruction due to moisture.
Gable:
The triangular end of a wall above the eaves with a peak roof.
Gabled or Hipped:
Roof windows that are gabled or hipped.
Gambrel roof:
A double slope roof where the upper slope is of a lesser pitch than the lower, both slopes are straight giving the look of a traditional American hay barn.
Gargoyle:
A figurine that projects from a roof or the parapet of a wall or tower and is carved into a grotesque figure, human or animal.
Gazebo:
A small lookout tower or summerhouse with a view, usually in a garden or park, but sometimes on the porch or roof of a house; also called a belvedere.
Georgian:
Named for four King Georges of England—Georgian homes are refined and symmetrical with paired chimneys and a decorative crown over the front door. Most surviving Georgians sport side-gabled roofs, are two to three stories high, and are constructed in brick. Georgian homes almost always feature an orderly row of five windows across the second story. Modern-day builders often combine features of the refined Georgian style with decorative flourishes from the more formal Federal style.
Gingerbread:
A word to describe any kind of decoration on a home found in such places as the gables, verge boards, porches, eaves, and around windows or doors. The decoration is generally created with a sawn scroll work technique. However, when the word “gingerbread” is used, it can also refer to homes that are distastefully and gaudily ornamented without much regard to the specific ornament used.
Gothic:
Of or relating to an architectural style prevalent in western Europe from the 12th through the 15th century and characterized by pointed arches, rib vaulting, and a developing emphasis on verticality and the impression of height.
Gothic Arch:
A narrow, pointed opening is the hallmark of a Gothic arch. The Gothic arch developed as a more sinuous and elegant successor to the Roman arch and was widely used in cathedrals of the Middle Ages such as Notre Dame in Paris.
Gothic Revival:
These picturesque structures are marked by "Gothic" windows with distinctive pointed arches; exposed framing timbers; and steep, vaulted roofs with cross-gables. Extravagant features may include towers and verandas. Ornate wooden detailing is generously applied as gable, window, and door trim.
Gothic Window:
A triple arched window where the centre pane is taller than the sides. Most commonly seen in churches.
Greek Order Columns:
Doric (plain capital, fluted, with no base), Ionic (a capital with opposing spiraling volutes) and Corinthian (ornate capital with stylized acanthus leaves).
Greek Revival:
Identify the style by its entry, full-height, or full-building width porches, entryway columns sized in scale to the porch type, and a front door surrounded by narrow rectangular windows. Roofs are generally gabled or hipped. Roof cornices sport a wide trim.
Grille:
A grating of metal, wood, or another material used as a screen, divider, barrier, or decorative element, as in a window.
Groin Vault:
Or square vault, made by intersecting two barrel vaults at right angles. The spaces created by this vault were called bay areas.
Guilloche:
An ornamental border formed of two or more interlaced bands around a series of circular voids.
Half Timbering:
In late medieval architecture, a type of construction in which the heavy timber framework is exposed, and the spaces between the studs filled with wattle-and-daub, plaster or brickwork.
Header:
Horizontal supporting member, such as a beam or lintel, spanning the top of a wall opening. Also the decorative trim assembly over an opening.
Herringbone:
A decorative pattern of stone, brick or tile that looks like the spine of a herring with the ribs extended from opposite sides in rows of parallel, slanting lines.
Hip Roof:
Locally known as a Cottage roof; a roof with four pitched sides, the line where two slopes of a roof meet is called a hip
Hood Moulding:
A decorative Moulding over a window or door frame
Hut:
A crude or makeshift dwelling or shelter; a shack. A temporary structure for sheltering troops.
Imbrication:
A pattern or design resembling the regular overlapping of tiles or shingles.
Impasto:
A thick rough application of paint
Incised:
Cut into, carved, engraved.
Inn:
A public lodging house serving food and drink to travelers; a hotel. A tavern or restaurant.
Intonaco:
The old Italian name applied to the last mortar layer upon which a fresco painting is made. The kind of surface finishing the intonaco should have is a matter of personal taste and often involves the use particular types of plastering materials and toweling techniques.
Intrados:
The inside curve or surface of an arch or vault.
Ionic column:
A Greek-style column topped by a single scroll just below the top.
Italianate:
Italianate homes can be quite ornate despite their solid square shape. Features include symmetrical bay windows in front; small chimneys set in irregular locations; tall, narrow, windows; and towers, in some cases. The elaborate window designs reappear in the supports, columns, and door frames.
Jamb:
One piece of the frame around a door or window.
Joists:
Horizontal framing members of a floor or ceiling frame.
Keystone:
The central, topmost stone of an arch. It locks in the voussoirs before the centering scaffolding can be removed.
Lancet Arch:
A Gothic or pointed arch.
Lancet Window:
A Gothic pointed window.
Lantern:
An upright structure on a roof or dome for letting in light and air or for decoration
Lattice:
An open framework made of strips of metal, wood, or similar material overlapped or overlaid in a regular, usually crisscross pattern.
Lattice window:
A window with diamond-shaped leaded lights or glazing bars arranged like an openwork screen; also, loosely, any hinged window, as distinct from a sash window.
Limestone:
An ancient building material often covered with a coat of stucco to provide a smooth surface and painted.
Lintel:
A horizontal beam or stone bridging an opening, most often a door.
Lodge:
A cottage or cabin, often rustic, used as a temporary abode or shelter: a ski lodge. A small house on the grounds of an estate or a park, used by a caretaker or gatekeeper. An inn.
Loggia:
A gallery open on one or more sides, sometimes pillared. It may also be a separate structure, usually in a garden.
Louvered:
A window shutter or door fitted with slanting fixed or movable slats to admit air, but exclude rain, snow, or to provide privacy.
Manor:
A landed estate. The main house on an estate; a mansion.
Mansard roof:
This roof is flat on top, sloping steeply down on all four sides, thus appearing to sheath the entire top story of a house or other building.
Mansion:
A large stately house. A manor house.
Mantelpiece:
The wood, brick, stone or marble frame surrounding a fireplace, sometimes including a mirror above.
Meander:
A running ornament consisting of an intricate variety of Greek fretwork.
Medallion:
A decorative, usually round relief carving applied to a wall or ceiling.
Modillion:
Greek classical feature of large rectangular shapes closely placed beneath the cornice, that are similar to a bracket in use, although modillions are purely ornamental as they formalize the look of beams protruding from beneath the roof of a early wood-framed building.
Moorish Arch:
A Moorish, or horseshoe arch, extends beyond a semi-circle. The top of the arch is rounded and then curves in slightly before descending.
Mortise & Tendon:
A joint made between two pieces of wood where the projecting part of one-piece fits into a corresponding cutout on another.
Mosaic:
A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.
Mouchette:
A teardrop-shaped Gothic tracery design.
Moulding:
Decorative strips of wood or plastic used in various kinds of trim work.
Moulding:
A decorative strip used for ornamentation or finishing. A decorative recessed or relieved surface on an edge.
Mullion:
A vertical post or other upright that divides a window or other opening into two or more panes. Sometimes only ornamental.
Muntin:
A thin strip of wood or metal that holds the panes within a window.
Nave:
Upper walk of the center track of a church or basilica.
Neoclassical:
The Neoclassical style ranges from one-story cottages to multilevel manses. Its identifying Ionic or Corinthian columned porches often extend the full height of the house. Also typical: symmetrical facades, elaborate, decorative designs above and around doorways, and roof-line balustrades.
Newel Cap and Post:
The end post of a balustrade, the cap is on the top of the newel; an ornamented post at the top, bottom, or landing of a stairway that supports the handrail.
Niche:
A recess in a wall (interior or exterior), especially for a statue. Usually curved at the back
Oculus:
Round window
Ogee Arch:
An arch with a compound curve, partly concave and partly convex; looks like the keel of a boat. (Also known as a Keel arch.)
Order:
Greek temple architecture was divided into three orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian), then the Romans added three more (Composite, Roman Doric, Tuscan). Each order had its own set of proportions and ornamental requirements (most apparent in its column and entablature) that the architects had to adhere to.
Oriel Window:
An oriel window projects from the wall and does not extend to the ground. Oriel windows originated as a form of porch. They are often supported by brackets or corbels. Buildings in the Gothic Revival style often have oriel windows.
Oxbow:
A large rounded design usually found inside porch posts made of one piece of wood that is placed on a mold and steamed into shape.
"Palace:
The official residence of a royal personage. Chiefly British. The official residence of a high dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop.
A large or splendid residence. A large, often gaudily ornate building used for entertainment or exhibitions.
"
Palazzo:
A large splendid residence or public building, such as a palace or museum.
Palladian:
A window divide into three parts: a large, arched central window, flanked by two smaller rectangular windows. It is sometimes called Venetian window.
Palmette:
A stylized palm leaf shape used as a decorative element in classical art and architecture.
Panel:
Any flat, rigid support prepared with a ground for painting on, can be recessed or protruding.
Parapet:
A low wall placed to protect any spot where there's a sudden drop, such as at the edge of a bridge or housetop.
Patio:
Paved recreation area, usually at the rear of a home.
Pavilion:
A light, sometimes ornamental roofed structure, used for amusement or shelter, as at parks or fairs: a picnic pavilion.
Pedestal:
In classical architecture, the base supporting a column or colonnade.
Pediment:
Originally, in classical architecture, the triangular space forming the gable of a simple roof; hence, a similar form used as a decoration over porticoes, doors, windows, etc.; also, a rounded or broken frontal having a similar position and use.
Pendant:
A decorative piece (made of masonry or turned wood) suspended from a roof or verge board: used especially in Gothic architecture
Pergola:
A covered walk in a garden, usually formed by a double row of posts or pillars with joists above and covered by climbing plants.
Phialia:
A Greek shallow bowl with small raised centers (navels-mesomphalic) beneath which the fingers would fit. The shape was Eastern, where handleless round-bottomed cups were preferred to Greek shapes.
Pier:
Solid masonry supports with no base or capital; Romanesque and Gothic pillars; the solid support between openings in buildings.
Pieta:
During a time when emotional appeal and realism was important in religious sculpture, the pieta (which means “pity”) was designed to serve private devotion. It became a contemplation image.
Pilaster:
A rectangular column projecting only slightly from a wall, incorporates a capital, shaft and base, as one of the orders. Once used for stiffening, now more common for decoration.
Plinth:
A rectangular block serving as the base of a vertical door casing or a pilaster.
Pillar:
A slender, freestanding, vertical support; a column.
Pointed Arch:
Produced by two curves that meet in the centre forming a point. Rooted in the tradition of medieval cathedrals, narrow windows with pointed arches are common on Victorian Gothic homes.
Portal:
A doorway, entrance, or gate, especially one that is large and imposing.
Portico:
an open porch with columns supporting a pedimental roof, creating the entrance and\or centre piece of a facade.
Pressed Tin:
Tin with a pressed pattern was used to create decorative and functional ceilings in homes and commercial buildings from 1880’s-1920’s. It was a fast, beautiful and permanent way to avoid the painstaking application of plaster.
"Quatrefoil Window:
A quatrefoil window is a round window which is composed of four equal lobes, like a four-petaled flower. The quatrefoil pattern is common in Moorish and gothic architecture. Also, many Mission style homes have quatrefoil windows. Four-leafed Gothic design found in tracery.
"
Queen Anne:
Queen Anne is a collection of coquettish detailing and eclectic materials. Steep cross-gabled roofs, towers, and vertical windows are all typical of a Queen Anne home. Inventive, multistory floor plans often include projecting wings, several porches and balconies, and multiple chimneys with decorative chimney pots. Wooden "gingerbread" trim in scrolled and rounded "fish-scale" patterns frequently graces gables and porches. Massive cut stone foundations are typical of period houses.
Quoins:
The dressed stones at the corners of buildings, usually laid so their faces are alternately large and small. Usually in contrasting color of brick from the rest of the wall. Common accent in Georgian homes
Rafters:
The principal supporting members of a roof frame, spanning between the walls and the roof peak.
Rail:
Horizontal trim work installed on a wall between the cornice and base trim. Also the horizontal members of the framework of such systems as doors, sashes, and cabinets.
Rain cap:
Feature over an opening such as a window or door, a wide trim developed to shed water away from the opening. Can be heavy and decorated or light and plain.
Ranch:
A house in which the owner of an extensive farm lives.
Regency:
Although they borrow from the Georgian's classic lines, Regency homes eschew ornamentation. They're symmetrical, two or three stories, and usually built in brick. Typically, they feature an octagonal window over the front door, one chimney at the side of the house, double-hung windows, and a hip roof.
Renaissance:
Of or being the style of architecture and decoration, based on classical models, that originated in Italy in the 15th century and continued throughout Europe up to the end of the 16th century.
Return:
A small piece of Moulding attached to the end of a long run of Moulding to carry the profile from the front of the Moulding back to the wall. The part of a pattern that continues around a corner.
Rococo:
A style of art, especially architecture and decorative art, that originated in France in the early 18th century and is marked by elaborate ornamentation, as with a profusion of scrolls, foliage, and animal forms.
Roman Arch :
Rounded, or Roman, arches hearken from Renaissance Italy, modeled after ancient Greek and Roman forms. You are likely to see windows with gently curved archways on Italian Renaissance and Victorian Italianate homes
Roman Order Columns:
Composite (capital is half Corinthian and half Ionic), Roman Doric (similar to Greek Doric), and Tuscan (non-fluted, not decorated).
Romanesque Column:
These squat, square columns often rest on massive, trapezoid-shaped bases, or piers, and often have floral or other decorations on their capitals. Simpler pier columns, often with wider bottoms than tops, are also common in Mission and Craftsman homes.
Rosette:
A painted, carved, or sculptured ornament having a circular arrangement of parts radiating out from the center and suggesting the petals of a rose.
Round Arch:
(False arch) equal to half a circle. A semicircular arch without voissoirs. Keystones are sometimes used for decoration but has nothing to do with the structure of the arch.
Roundel:
A circular Moulding
Rustication:
Masonry characterized by smooth or roughly textures block faces, and strongly emphasized recessed joint.
Salt Box:
Named because the sharply sloping gable roof that resembled the boxes used for storing salt. The step roofline often plunges from two and one-half stories in front to a single story in the rear. In Colonial times, the lower rear portion was often used as a partially enclosed shed, which was oriented north as a windbreak. These square or rectangular homes typically have a large central chimney and large, double-hung windows with shutters. Exterior walls are made of clapboard or shingles.
Sash window:
A window formed with sashes, or sliding frames running in vertical grooves.
Sawn Scroll Work:
When the scroll saw was invented many decorative features for homes were made for verge boards, brackets, tympanums. The term “gingerbread” often refers to this type of external architectural decoration.
Saw tooth Shingles:
Shingles in the triangular shapes of teeth in a horizontal row.
Scalloped Siding:
Fish scale, or circle siding - siding shaped like the round overlapping scales of a fish. The siding may be rounded or segmentally-shaped.
Scroll Brackets:
Brackets in the shape of scrolls.
Segmental Arch:
Forms a partial curve, or eyebrow, over a door or window. This arch has a slight rise and is semi-elliptical across the top.
Shack:
A small, crudely built cabin; a shanty.
Shanty:
A roughly built, often ramshackle cabin; a shack.
Shed:
A small structure, either freestanding or attached to a larger structure, serving for storage or shelter. A large low structure often open on all sides.
Shingle:
A thin wedge-shaped piece of wood, slate, etc. laid with others in a series of overlapping rows for roofs and sides of houses.
Shutters:
Window or door screens featuring horizontal slats that may be articulated, allowing control over air and light transmission. They are usually made of wood. While they may be hinged, modern exterior shutters are often decorative and remain fixed to the wall alongside the window or door opening.
Sidelight:
Windows placed on either side of another window or door that are narrower than the centre opening.
Sill:
The lower horizontal part of a window frame. Materials vary widely, from wood to marble.
Single Hung:
Referring to a window with a fixed top sash and a lower sash that slides vertically.
Skylight:
A window set into a roof or ceiling to provide extra lighting. Sizes, shapes and placement vary widely.
Soffit:
The underside of any architectural element (as of an overhang or staircase). In modern homes, the wood or metal screening used to cover such areas.
Solarium:
A glass-enclosed porch or room, often used to display flowers and other plants; also called a sunroom or garden room.
Spandrel:
Space between an arched opening and the rectangle formed by the outer Mouldings above and to one side - often filled with painted decoration.
Spindled:
This is the style we most frequently think of when we hear the term "Queen Anne." These are "gingerbread" houses with delicate turned porch posts and lacy, ornamental spindles.
Spool and Spindle:
Eastlake ornament of turned wood, shaped like wooden spools (rimmed cylinders) and spindles (rounded tapering sticks).
Square Boxed Column:
A supporting column that is square. The capital and base are also square and unornamented. Can be found in Federal styled buildings.
Stick:
The Stick house boasts a lot of detailing, however, few Stick homes incorporate all the possible features. Typical characteristics include gabled, steeply pitched roofs with overhangs; wooden shingles covering the exterior walls and roof; horizontal, vertical, or diagonal boards--the "sticks" from which it takes its name--that decorate the cladding; and porches.
Stick Work:
The decorative stick-like pieces of wood placed in diagonal, vertical, and horizontal patterns of the outside of a wood-frame building; usually found in gable ends and around windows.
Stile:
The outer vertical members of the framework found on doors, cashes, cabinets, and wainscoting systems.
Straight Arch:
Extends straight across an opening with no curvature, creating a horizontal emphasis.
Strut:
A roof timber, either upright and connected to the rafter above it, or sloping, connecting another post to the rafter.
Stucco:
An exterior wall covering consisting of a mixture of cement, sand, lime, and water or of cement, sand, and hair.
Sunburst:
An Eastlake decorative element shaped like a sun with radiating rays; often only a semi or quarter circle of the motif is used.
Swag:
A decoration resembling a garland of fruit, flower, or leaves draped between two points; a festoon.
Swans Neck:
A pediment with an open apex; each side terminates in curves resembling a swan’s neck.
Tabby Wall:
Raised by setting two boards on edge. Into this frame was then poured lime shell mortar mixed with sand and oyster shells. When that section had set, the boards were raised a level and the process repeated. Used as a kind of cement to coat Spanish Colonial architecture.
Terra Cotta:
A red-brown fired, but unglazed clay used for roof tiles and decorative wall covering. Glazed terra cotta was frequently used for exterior decoration on buildings of the early 20th century.
Terrace:
A level promenade in front of a building; usually made of stone and accented with plants, statuary, etc.
Terrazzo:
A sturdy flooring finish of marble chips mixed with cement mortar. After drying, the surface is ground and polished.
Thermae:
Roman baths
Tongue and Groove Siding:
Siding that fits together and doesn’t overlap like clapboard.
Tower:
A building or structure, usually round or square in plan and characteristically taller than its diameter.
Townhouse:
A row house, especially a fashionable one.
Tracery:
Decorative intersecting glazing bars in the upper portion of a window; most common in Gothic Revival styles.
Transom:
The horizontal framing member between a door and a window above; also refers to the window above a door. Some transoms open to cross-ventilate a home, while others are only decorative.
Trefoil:
Three-leafed as in Gothic tracery design.
Treillage:
Latticework, especially a trellis for a vine.
Triglyph:
In the frieze of a Doric entablature, a rectangular block that has three vertical strips formed by two grooves.
Trim:
The framing or edging of openings and other features on the facade of a building or indoors. Trim is usually a different color or material than the adjacent wall.
Trumneau:
A center post supporting the lintel that spans the width of an arch in a Romanesque portal ensemble.
Tudor:
The defining characteristics are half-timbering on bay windows and upper floors, and facades that are dominated by one or more steeply pitched cross gables. Patterned brick or stone walls are common, as are rounded doorways, multi-paned casement windows, and large stone chimneys.
Tudor Arch:
often described as "flattened" Gothic arches. They feature a point at the crown, but the span is much wider than the Gothic style.
Turret:
A very small, slender tower. In modern homes, usually only ornamental.
Tympanum:
the area within a pediment, often decorated with scroll sawn ornaments, scalloped siding or sculpted figures as in Greek and Roman buildings.
Urn:
Large ornamental bulbous containers often containing floral arrangements that became a decorative end piece on roofs and newel posts in classical Greek architecture.
Valance:
An ornamental drapery, decorative board, or metal strip mounted especially across the top of a window to conceal structural fixtures.
Victorian:
Being in the highly ornamented, massive style of architecture, decor, and furnishings popular in 19th-century England. Advancements in technology meant that builders could easily incorporate mass-produced ornamentation such as brackets, spindles, and patterned shingles.
Villa:
A country estate with a substantial house.
Volute:
A spiral scroll-like ornament commonly found on Ionic, Composite or Corinthian columns.
Voussoir:
Wedge-shaped stone of which an arch or vault is built.
Wainscoting:
Decorative paneling covering the lower 3-4 feet of an interior wall. Usually wood in a plain design; may be painted or only varnished.
Wave or Running Dog:
Greek ornamental design to look like a course of waves.
Widow's Walk:
A small, railed observation platform atop a house. Once used to scout for seamen, such walks are usually square, done in elaborately-worked wrought iron or wood.
Wrought Iron:
A tough, malleable, relatively soft iron that is readily forged and welded, having a fibrous structure containing approximately 0.2% carbon and a small amount of uniformly distributed slag.
|
