Architectural styles

This is kind of an age old question.  You admire a building and wonder what is the architectural style of that house?

First off architectural historians disagree a lot. There is not always a clear answer.

Unusually you start with symmetrical or asymmetrical. Can you divide it down the middle? If it does it is Symmetrical. Some popular symmetrical styles are Georgian and Colonial Revival. Asymmetrical think Tudor or Queen Anne Victorian.

Then you can start to define the style. In San Diego most homes were built by builders who channeled a variety of styles.  My personal home is symmetrical but it stops there. It is seriously a Colonial Revival Craftsman with a Cotswold Revival roof. I have no idea what Alexander Schrieber was thinking. A lot of people might call it eclectic. The city of San Diego just calls it a bungalow.

 I have arranged many of my searches by architectural style using some keywords. However it doesn’t always work. Apparently many agents do not have a clue. Sometimes I think they call everything Craftsman. Craftsman seems to have become the favorite housing catch word.

I do have some helpful suggestions. For the serious, the national parks service historic preservation has put together a great guide to house style.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) came up with a little graphic to help out agents. All of the graphic are links to more information on the style While some of the styles are not in San Diego. It makes a nice little visual guide. (Now if I could just get. some of the agents to read this)

				Guide to Residential Styles Know of a style you don’t see here? Let us know. Every house has a style. Sometimes it has two or more; because of renovations and new, eclectic mixes, fitting a home into one specific category can be daunting or even impossible. Thankfully, there’s no need to memorize complicated architectural terminology. REALTOR® Magazine has compiled a convenient compendium of common styles. Delve in and learn to highlight the details that give a home character, history, and romance. Residential Styles Art Deco Bungalow Cape Cod Colonial Contemporary Craftsman Creole Dutch Colonial Federal French Provincial Georgian Gothic Revival Greek Revival International Italianate Monterey National Neoclassical Prairie Pueblo Queen Anne Ranch Regency Saltbox Second Empire Shed Shingle Shotgun Spanish Eclectic Split Level Stick Tudor Victorian