Guide
How to identify a building's architectural style
Work out roughly when the building went up, then read it from the top down: the roof and skyline, the shape of its arches and windows, its ornament, and what its walls are made of. Each style has two or three signature features, and finding them narrows the choice to a few styles. The tables below come from Archie's catalog of 146 styles; each style page has photos of real buildings to compare.
Six steps
- Date it, even roughly. Look for a cornerstone, a date on the facade or a plaque. Styles have periods: Art Deco ran from c. 1925 to 1940 and Brutalism from c. 1950 to 1980, so a date rules out most of the catalog before you look at any detail.
- Note what kind of building it is. Building types favored certain styles. American colleges built in Collegiate Gothic, and train stations, libraries and courthouses of 1880 to 1930 were often Beaux-Arts.
- Read the roof and skyline. A mansard roof points to Second Empire; towers that step back as they rise, to Art Deco; a flat roof with no cornice, to Modernism.
- Look at the arches and windows. Pointed arches belong to the Gothic family. Round arches belong to Romanesque, the Renaissance and their revivals. Long horizontal bands of windows belong to the 20th century.
- Look at the ornament, or the lack of it. Columns and a triangular pediment mean a classical style. Zigzags and sunbursts mean Art Deco, and curving plant forms mean Art Nouveau. No ornament at all usually means International Style or a later Modernist style.
- Check the material. Rough-faced stone in heavy round arches suggests Richardsonian Romanesque. Bare concrete suggests Brutalism, and a skin of glass on a steel frame, the International Style or later.
Features and the styles they point to
Each feature below is a signature of the styles listed with it in Archie's catalog. The full list is in the glossary of features.
Styles that are easy to mix up
Gothic or Gothic Revival?
Pointed arches, ribbed ceilings, and flying buttresses that let stone walls turn into glass and light.
Look for: flying buttress, rose window
Medieval drama revived: pointed arches, steep gables, patterned stone window bars, and strong vertical lines.
Look for: tracery window, steep gable
Georgian or Federal?
Disciplined brick symmetry: sash windows in even rows, a paneled door with a fan shaped window above, and quiet classical trim.
Refined American Georgian: oval fanlights over doors, slender proportions, and delicate garland ornament.
Neoclassical or Beaux-Arts?
Buildings modeled closely on Greek and Roman temples: grand columned porches, domes, and plain, symmetrical walls.
Gilded Age grandeur: paired giant columns, rough-cut stone bases, rooftop sculpture, and monumental stairs.
Look for: rustication, carved stone relief
Romanesque Revival or Richardsonian Romanesque?
Round arches revived in heavy rough-cut stone: squat columns, cave-like entrances, and deep-set windows.
Look for: deep-set window
Muscular rough-cut stone, huge low round arches on stubby columns, and round corner towers.
Look for: turret
Art Nouveau or Art Deco?
Whiplash curves and plant-like ironwork: facades that look grown rather than built.
Look for: organic ornament, wrought-iron balcony, stained glass
Jazz-age glamour: towers stepping back as they rise, strong vertical lines, and zigzag or sunburst ornament.
Look for: stepped setback, vertical pier, geometric ornament
Art Deco or Streamline Moderne?
Jazz-age glamour: towers stepping back as they rise, strong vertical lines, and zigzag or sunburst ornament.
Look for: stepped setback, vertical pier, geometric ornament
Aerodynamic buildings: smooth white curves, corner and porthole windows, and horizontal speed lines.
Look for: streamlined curves, corner window, porthole window
Bauhaus or International Style?
Flat-roofed white boxes, ribbon and corner windows, and zero ornament.
Look for: stucco wall
Glass walls hung on exposed steel or concrete grids: weightless, ornament-free, and endlessly repeatable.
Look for: curtain wall
For houses
American houses have their own set of styles, from Saltbox to Modern Farmhouse. They're sorted by period, with the roof, window and porch clues for each, in what style is my house?
Questions
Is there an app that identifies architectural style from a photo?
Archie, an iPhone app, names a building's style from a photo out of 146 styles, circles the features that point to it, and names the building itself when it can check the match against its database of 1,755,352 buildings. On a computer or an Android phone, sign in at thearchieapp.com and upload a photo.
How many architectural styles are there?
There's no agreed count: guides split and merge styles differently. Archie's catalog has 146, in ten eras from Ancient and Classical to Postmodern and Contemporary, plus American regional styles and traditions from around the world.
What's the difference between a style and its revival?
A revival copies an earlier style with the materials and building types of its own time. Gothic architecture dates from c. 1150 to 1500; Gothic Revival, which used it for churches, colleges and houses, from c. 1740 to 1900. The date of the building is usually the quickest way to tell them apart.