Arabesque: 1. a decorative pattern combining animal, plant, and occasionally, human forms, used in Roman and Renaissance design. 2. a decorative pattern of interlaced lines or bands in geometrical forms, developed in Arabian design.
arcade: 1. a series of arches with their supports of piers or columns. 2. a passageway, one side of which is a series of arches supporting a roof.
arch: a form of construction, usually of masonry, in which a number of units span an opening, by carrying the downward thrust laterally to the next unit and finally to the abutments or vertical supports. The shape may be rounded, pointed, flat or combinations thereof.
baluster: a miniature column or other upright form which, in series, supports a handrail, as in a balustrade.
balustrade: a railing or parapet consisting of a handrail on balusters, sometimes on a base member and sometimes interrupted by piers.
bargeboard: the vertical-face board following, and set back under, the roof edge of a gable, sometimes decorated by carving.
Baroque: the architecture of Europe, beginning in the 17th century with the Italian Mannerists who broke with the academic tradition of the Late Renaissance and developed a personal inventive approach to the use of classical forms. The Baroque evolved into a complex, fluid and sensuous style which lasted into the 18th century and the Palladian style.
belt course (strung course): a continuous horizontal element on the face of a building, usually projecting and often decorated.
bracket: a supporting member for a projecting floor, shelf or cornice, usually in a series.
capital: the top element of a column, pier, shaft, or pilaster.
capstone: the crowning stone of a structure; often the top member of a parapet.
Chicago School: the architectural development in the Chicago area led by Sullivan, Burnham and Root and others, mainly during the years 1880-1905, which was concerned with the new steel construction methods and the aesthetics of the multi-story commercial building.
classic: an outstanding example of any particular style.
classical: of, or based upon, the styles of ancient Greece and Rome.
Classic Revival: a phase of Romanticism characterized by the use of Greek and occasionally Roman forms in residential and commercial architecture, roughly during the period 1820-1860. This development was greatly influenced by the re-discovery and publication of the ancient buildings and art of Greece and Rome.
coffer: a recessed panel in a flat or vaulted ceiling, often ornamental.
Collegiate Gothic: the use of Gothic forms in college and school buildings. A style based on Medieval English colleges that has persisted through the centuries to the present day.
Colonial architecture: the architectural style developed in the American Colonial Period up to the early 19th century. The term has been loosely applied to include Early Republic, Georgian, Federal, and other regional styles, and sometimes the Greek Revival.
Colonial Revival: the revival of Colonial styles, begun in the east in the early 1880s and seen in Portland in the early 1890s.
colonnade: a row of columns supporting their entablatures.
console: a decorative bracket, usually scroll shaped, with its vertical dimension greater than the horizontal.
coping: the capping or top course of a wall, usually adapted to the protection of the wall from weather.
corbel: a bracket form, usually produced by extending successive courses of masonry or wood beyond the wall surface.
Corinthian: one of the Greek orders, widely used by the Romans, in which the column capitals show conventionalized acanthus leaves, the shaft being slender and sometimes fluted.
cornice: 1. the upper member of a classical entablature. 2. the projecting member at the top of a wall; a decorative development of the eaves of a roof.
cupola: a terminal structure rising above a main roof, usually domed.
dentils: a series of blocklike projections forming a horizontal molding, usually part of a cornice; originally from the classical Greek orders.
Doric: the earliest and simplest of the classical orders. The prime example is the Parthenon.
eclectic architecture: that based on, or imitative of, styles selected by personal preference; often used to describe the Period Revival styles of 1890-1930.
entablature: in classical architecture, the horizontal group of members immediately above the column capitals; divided into three major parts: the architrave, frieze , and cornice.
facade: a face of a building, especially the principal front.
fascia: a horizontal band or vertical face, usually in combination with moldings, as in the lowest member of a classical cornice.
finial: a terminal form at the top of spire, gable, gatepost, pinnacle, or other point of relative height.
frieze: a band member in the vertical plane, sometimes decorated with sculpture relief, occurring just under a cornice.
Georgian architecture: a term roughly denoting the architecture of England under the reign of Anne and the four Georges, 1702-1830.
Georgian Revival: see Colonial Revival.
Gothic: the style developed in Europe during the 11th through 14th centuries, characterized by its great cathedrals with their pointed arches and vertical emphasis.
Gothic Revival: the use of Gothic forms and composition, mainly in residential architecture, reflecting the Romantic tastes, roughly during the years 1830 -1860.
hip: of a roof, the outside line of intersection of two roof planes.
Ionic: the Greek order which followed the Doric and preceded the Corinthians, its capital known by its scroll-like volutes.
Italianate: generally referring to the style and motifs of the Italian Renaissance. Often more specifically applied to a commercial architectural style of the latter half of the 19th century.
Jacobean: English architecture of the 17th century characterized by the introduction of Italian Renaissance design to traditional English medieval forms.
lintel: at the horizontal member of the most common structural form; a beam resting its two ends upon separate posts.
loggia: a passage or gallery, colonnaded on one or both sides.
Mannerism: the architecture that developed during the late 16th century in Italy which departed from the formal traditions of the Renaissance; characterized by personal, inventive and sometimes bizarre use of classical forms as in the architecture of Michelangelo.
mansard roof: a roof having a slope in two planes, usually of hipped construction. The lower plane is more prominent and much steeper than the upper which is usually flat or nearly flat. Named for Francois Mansard, a French architect (1598-1666).
masonry: constructed by the laying up of small units, such as brick and stone, usually with mortar.
molding: a linear member or any deviation from a plane surface, involving rectangular or curved profiles, or both, with the purpose of effecting a transition or of obtaining a decorative play of light and shade.
mullion: an upright member between windows or doors of a close series, first used in Early English.
neo-classic: any revival of the classical architectural forms of ancient Greece or Rome.
oriel: a projecting window with its walls corbeled or supported by brackets.
Palladian: referring to the Northern Italian architecture of Andrea Palladio, and characterized by a formal and restrained use of classical forms as introduced into Veneto in the 16th century.
patina: the color and texture added to a surface by time and weathering.
pedestal: a base for a column, or for a piece of sculpture.
pediment: the triangular face of a roof gable, especially in its classical form.
pergola: an arbor or colonnade supporting open roof timbers, often vine-covered.
pier: an upright structure of masonry to serve as a principal support, whether isolated or part of a wall.
pilaster: a rectangular pier of shallow depth engaged to the main structure; in classical architecture it follows the height and width of related columns, with similar base and cap.
pillar: a detached, upright, columnar support.
porte-cochere: a shelter for vehicles outside an entrance doorway.
portico: a covered entrance porch.
Prairie School: the residential style developed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his followers in the early 1900s.
pressed brick: brick molded to a compact smooth face by mechanical pressure, as differentiated from brick made by the lighter pressure of filling a mold with the clay.
Queen Anne: a loosely applied term referring to the style of residential architecture based on English domestic forms of the 16th century, roughly during the period 1875-1895, characterized by informal composition and a wide variety (Colonial, Classical, Japanese) of decorating motifs.
quoins: masonry blocks at the corner of a wall, either providing extra strength or to make a feature of a corner, creating an impression of permanence and strength.
rake: the edge of a sloped plane, as of a roof, gable, or stair string.
Renaissance architecture: the architecture resulting from a rebirth of interest in, and knowledge of, ancient classical forms and from a revolt against medieval forms and habits. Starting in Italy in the early 15th century, it spread throughout Europe, strongly affected by regional influences.
Richardson Romanesque: a revival of Romanesque forms based on the work of H. H. Richardson. Beginning with Richardson’s Trinity Church in Boston in 1872 the style was widely used in a variety of forms and building types until about 1895.
Romanesque architecture: generally the architecture of Europe from the 8th century to the beginning of the Gothic in the early 12th century. Based on Roman forms and Byzantine influence in some regions, it is characterized by round arches, vaults, and massive masonry construction.
rustication: stone work where the joints are recessed and emphasized and the faces are roughened or otherwise treated to distinguish them from dressed stone.
sash: a frame for glass to close a window opening.
scagliola: simulation of colored marble in plaster, often in interior columns; first used soon after 1600.
Second Empire: a style based on French architecture of the Second Empire. Featuring the Mansard roof, it was popular during the years 1865-1875.
sill: 1. the horizontal member immediately sally be applied also to construction having a frame of reinforced concrete or wood.
soffit: the finished underside of a lintel, arch, or other spanning member, usually overhead.
spandrel: 1. the triangular surface between arches. 2. in skeleton-frame buildings, the panel or wall between adjacent structural columns and between windowsill and the window head next below it.
style: 1. characteristic form, as of a specific period in history. 2. distinctive or characteristic expression in any art.
terra cotta: cast and fired clay units, usually larger and more intricately modeled than brick.
Tudor architecture: the Gothic architecture in England generally during the 16th century, usually applied to domestic and collegiate buildings.
valley: the line of intersection of two roof slopes, where their drainage combines.
vaulted: roofed by arched masonry.
vernacular: indigenous; characteristic of a locality.
Victorian: a loosely applied term referring to the architecture of the late 19th century. It is often more specifically related to the various interpretations of the Gothic during this period.