Posts Tagged ‘Architectural Style’

Architectural Details Coming Back

January 9th, 2010

Craftsman style architecture was a huge hit in the early 1900s. The beautiful architectural style with unique craftsman trims and decorative exterior accents were a display of craftsman beauty, architectural diligence, and pure woodworking expertise. The craftsman style faded, however, because as beautiful as these architectural accents were, they became maintenance nightmares on the exterior due mainly to rotting. Beautifully crafted architectural details needed to be removed or redone in order to maintain the architectural integrity. Craftsman style homes eventually faded out and track homes took the limelight. Competition and affordability became hallmarks in the building and real estate industry to cater towards middle income families.

Lately, however, there’s been a reverse of the trend, especially with the 2008 housing recession in full gear. There are two reasons for this. First off, the current buyers market makes it difficult for plain houses to stick out anymore. This makes it easy for a homeowner to get a custom home or a house with upgrades and details at a stellar price. These houses are selling more now and track homes are sitting on the sidelines. Additionally, new low maintenance products on the market like PVC and composites have helped revive the craftsman style of architecture. Fabricators, manufacturers, and craftsman woodworkers have found better ways to develop architectural accents that are maintenance free. Because of this, architectural quality has returned and is continuing to make a comeback. The current housing recession is aiding in the return of the craftsman-style architecture by brining quality homes and upgraded details to an affordable price.

Window boxes are an example of the trend that is quickly returning. Brackets and functional shutters have also made a comeback. PVC has worked great for window boxes as a no rot alternative that is also water resistant. Many builders phased window boxes out of the architecture in the early 1900s because the water would rot the boxes out in as fast as little as three to five years. The quick rotting and maintenance jeopardized the reputations of the builders. Now, more builders are brining window boxes back, because they add architectural beauty and curb appeal and finally they are maintenance free. Anything that can get more potential home buyers to step foot inside has been the motto during this current recession. PVC has also been a huge hit for trim work and windows as well. There’s no better selling feature than to be able to ensure potential homebuyers that the quality that went into building the house is there to stay for a long time. With all these factors considered, expect to see a win for architecture in general as we move forward in 2008.




By: Matthew Buquoi

“Florida Home” Architectural Style

December 26th, 2009

The Florida Home is a classic, distinctive and elegant style which has been explored and developed by architects such as Igor Polevitzky, Rufus Nims and Alfred Browning Parker in 1940s-’50s South Florida. The homes are based on international style and modern architecture, in an attempt to incorporate modern designs and elements in the styling. Florida house is famous for its comfortable and lively spaces in a warm climate. Screened outdoor living, sleeping and dining pool areas are typical characteristic features of any outdoor living space. To fight the elements while letting air pass through, the architects experimented with eaves, raised floors and the omnipresent jalousie windows. Cracker StyleFlorida cracker architecture is a style of woodframe homes that were hugely popular in the 19th century in Florida, United States, and are still popular with some developers as a source of design themes. These homes are characterized by metal roofs, raised floors and straight central hallways from the front to the back of the home. Floridian style house floor plans will rarely have a basement due to the elevation and water table. The exterior walls are usually be made of concrete. Cement block walls are sometimes replaced with ICF or Insulated Concrete Forms. Concrete is used because it is the best base strata for the stucco exterior finish. In fact, many homeowners have permanently covered their homes to allow for efficient air-conditioning and incorporate other modern needs as well. The designing is extremely sensible with different parts of the home divided into villas, separated into four corners connected by covered walkways affording privacy as well as allowing those imperative southeasterly breezes to drift through the spacious rooms. Well, above are some key features about the “Florida home” architectural style.

North American Architecture & Interesting Facts

December 24th, 2009

Atlanta is a very rapidly growing city, an impressive notion about Atlanta; however, is the ability to really keep “green” in mind. Although there isn’t much park space in Atlanta, trees are very important here, they’ve planted over 68,000 trees. When visiting Atlanta, a few things you may want to view are: The bank of America plaza, which is the 3rd tallest building in the US, the Atlanta aquarium, which is th elargest in the world, and one of many, many museums.
Austin isn’t really known for their buildings or parks, but rather the people who live there, Austinites are known to be people of the best personalities. Austin is really proud to honor small businesses and focuses on trying to keep large Company’s from taking over.
Boston was an early trend starter by being the first American city to open a public school, a college, and a subway system. Since then, with over 250,000 college students attending colleges of art, technology, music, fine arts, etc… Boston has become one of the main educational hubs in America.
Chicago has the world’s tallest skyline. Chicago has a vast amount of architectural style throughout the city; however, including high rise towers, low rise towers, and single family homes.
Dallas is a very diverse city; it isn’t a city you could categorize as having any specific style. Many city streets are mixed with older Victorian homes to newer modernized homes and everything in between. In the list of 20 worlds tallest Dallas comes in number fifteen.
Denver has a real sense of originality, a large portion of the city has been around since WWII, and therefore there are a lot of buildings made of brick. Even many of the newer homes being built in and around Denver are trying to recreate the feeling and appearance of old neighborhoods.
Houston something very unique and brilliantly planned about Houston is the fact that they’ve built tunnels and skywalks filled with shops and restaurants that connect from building to building. This was planned very well considering it saves people from walking in the extreme weather conditions of Houston.
Las Vegas is one of a kind! First of all it has the brightest skyline, but the buildings that make it up are what make this city a true gem. Brilliant architecture takes place here, mini cities, such as little Italy, little New York, etc… from all over are what makes up the biggest little city ever.
Los Angeles as the only major American city to be bisected by mountains, another interesting fact is that all of the neighborhoods that it’s divided into, many of them used to be individual towns until the growth of Los Angeles blended them all together. Los Angeles is known to have the most landmarks in one city alone.
Miami the cleanest city in the USA is known for much more than just that. Miami is worldly known for Finance, International trade, and Cruise Departures, not to mention the beautiful beaches. Another appealing thing would definitely be the diverse housing. Miami is home to many single and two-storey homes, as well as many high rise residential towers, and the infamous Coconut Grove where you would find beautiful historic homes and estates dating back as far as 1825. This is also where you would City Hall.
Minneapolis: Due to the great amount of water from lakes, rivers, creeks, and waterfalls to the arts and theatre aspect that Minneapolis is known for, it’s really no wonder why people from everywhere are calling Minneapolis one of the “coolest” places to live.
Nashville: What is there to say about the capital of Tennessee? Other than what it’s known for, which is Music; Nashville has a beautiful skyline of Downtown. It’s a short skyline with only a few glass skyscrapers towering over the shorter brick building, and overlooking the Cumberland River, makes this a truly distinctive looking city.
New York: Some of the nicknames given to New York are very fitting such as The Big Apple or The City That Never Sleeps, because it really is the big apple, a city made up of a vast amount of park space and beaches, nicely blended into one of the largest cities in the world, it’s incredible to find so many attributes in one place. New York is known worldwide for their skyscrapers, having more in the city than any other in the world. Most of the homes you will find here will be row homes made of brick and stone
Orange County: As the home of some of America’s most expensive neighborhoods, with so many tourist attractions, beaches, parks, and open spaces for outdoor recreation it’s no wonder that Orange County is a major tourist destination. Much of Orange County has kept it’s 1950’s image.
Philadelphia: Is in general, an older city, with most of it’s housing being of the 20th century or older. The most common type of housing found here would be the Row House. The buildings found in the downtown area and throughout the rest of Philadelphia are of all different construction, from log to brick, and steel & concrete buildings to glass & granite skyscrapers. Philadelphia is definitely a must see for historians.
Phoenix: Is a dessert city, it’s very brown from the land to the buildings, as lots of brick and stone are used here. A couple groups of people that frequent Phoenix would be those who golf, and those in the technology business, as it is a technical hub. Phoenix is home to many large company headquarters.
Portland:Some people would call Portland Volcano City due to the fact that it is locate don a volcano field and surrounded by volcanoes; you are able to see Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens from Portland. A truly unique feature in the design of the city is that you can find suburban neighborhoods and farm homes within the same city blocks as each other. One thing that they’ve focused on when planning out the city is making it pedestrian friendly, which they have been able to achieve by making narrower streets.
Raleigh: Is a very historic city, with buildings as old as 1923. Raleigh is a separated city, by which I mean it’s divided into parts as many cities are, but each part here is generalized. Old Raleigh is what it says it is, very historic, East and West Raleigh is suburban homes, North is newly built homes, South is home to few houses, and Southeast ahs some of everything from new developments to poor inner-city homes.
Sacramento: Is a much desired place to live. It has a very beautiful skyline, due to the different types and styles of buildings. All in one place you could find very modern glass and articulately designed buildings, old historic buildings, buildings made of stone, brick, and even bridges you see here stand out in a crowd. It’s truly magnificent to see such diversity all blended together in one place.
San Diego: Is a tourist haven; it sees much tourism every year, with so many tourist destinationsand the beauty of the city from beaches and even the beautiful weather. San Diego’s port also brings many tourists in on the cruise ships.
San Francsco: There are some things about San Francisco that don’t need to be mentioned because San Francisco has become very known for particular things. These would have to include The infamous Golden Gate Bridge, which you can view from most beaches, Cable cars are also a known means of transportation, and of course another famous viewpoint would be Nob Hill, one of the steepest known hills, and of course Fisherman’s Wharf. This is just to name a few, San Francisco has definitely made a name for itself.
Seattle: It’s a given that cities such as Seattle with it’s port is going to bring in much tourism, but something you may not know, is the residents of Seattle are generally quite laid back, some would blame this on the relaxing surroundings such as the ocean views and the large amount of trees and forest land. Seattle residents tend to spend a great deal of their free time drinking coffee or spending the day at a local park, whether they be cycling, jogging, or just enjoying a day outside.
Washington DC: Named after America’s first president, George Washington, this city has many monuments and buildings named after previous presidents, also it is home to many major banks headquarters and the three branches of US Governments centers are located here. It’s no wonder why many people refer to this city as a Political Place.  
Calgary: People who live in Calgary, often known as Calgarians are very proud of where they’re from, and rightfully so. First of all Calgary is a very beautiful city with a high, high rise downtown and views of the Canadian Rockies from many parts of the city. If you’re lucky, once in awhile you can even see the northern Lights. A few other things that keep Calgarians proud is the fact that Calgary is the fastest growing city in Canada and noted as the cleanest city in the world, a little ironic due to the fact that it also plays a huge role in the oil industry. One thing about Calgary that some may not be too fond of is the weather, you can expect snow to fall at anytime of the year, snowfalls aren’t unheard of even in June. Calgary gets a lot of summer evening Thunderstorms and unexpected hailstorms which can sometimes be damaging.
Edmonton: Although Edmonton has a very long winter every year it’s become quite popular for outdoor activities. Golfing is a major sport here mostly because Edmonton has extended daylight so golfers are able to play longer into the evening. Also Edmonton has the highest area of parkland per capita in Canada with many great hiking and biking trails.
Montreal: Has a couple main notable characteristics, the most visible one would be the amount of historic buildings, Montreal is known world-wide for this. The second would be the underground city, which many don’t even know about. This is an incredible example of how to really utilize space. There are over 1600 shops, banks, museums, etc… you can also get around by using the underground transportation where you can travel by train or bus. This making Montreal truly a one of a kind city.
Ottawa: To those of you interested in Government may have traveled to Ottawa, it’s Parliament Hill is home to many landmark government buildings, not to mention the number of national museums, memorials, etc… Rideau Canal is a beautiful addition that goes through the city. Because Ottawa has extreme hot summers and extreme cold winters, Rideau Canal freezes so solid in the winter that it becomes a huge natural ice skating arena.
Toronto: Has got to be most popular for its diversity, from people to buildings. Toronto is the immigrant capital, with 49% of it’s population being born outside of Canada, the diversity expands onto buildings as well, there isn’t a particular architectural style in Toronto, there are buildings from the 1800’s – 2000’s and a mix with design as well, with glass and steel recently becoming the most popular, mainly with the increase of high-rise residential buildings. Toronto is often labeled as one of the most desirable places to live in the world; unfortunately it’s also one of the most expensive in Canada.
Vancouver: Is known world-wide for the fact that it’s a much desired place to live and travel. Also known as Hollywood North, the main reason that the filming industry has taken such a huge interest in Vancouver is due to the fact that there are mountains, ocean, flat lands, new development, old development, etc… you can create Vancouver to look like almost anywhere. Vancouver has one of the highest qualities of living in the world, but unfortunately also has unruly expensive real estate.
Victoria: Is a huge tourists destination, many of which whom arrive by cruise ships. Downtown Victoria is a well planned out area for tourists because it is all clustered together with bars, museums, theaters restaurants, and many annual events are held all within close proximity of each other.
 
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