Planning Your Project

We're all familiar with various style names like Victorian, or Colonial. Yet most people are hard-pressed to define the styles exactly, and style names are notoriously mis-applied in real-estate ads.

Styles are really just collections of architectural elements like doors, windows, roofs, siding, and moldings. For example, a Tudor house has a steep roof and arched windows, while a Colonial has a moderately pitched roof and rectangular windows. Styles evolve within a historical context, reflecting the aesthetics, values, and technological capabilities of society at particular points in time. The Victorian style gained popularity in late nineteenth century America because of both admiration for original English examples, and the ability to mass-produce millwork, using the expanded rail network for distribution. Today we are seeing a similar resurgence of highly detailed homes, based on the technological breakthrough of creating moldings out of moldable synthetics, rather than wood.

Unlike clothing styles, many architectural styles have never gone "out of fashion", and it's common to see a variety of styles on the same street. Today's homeowner can choose from at least twenty traditional style precedents, including: Federal, Georgian, Dutch Colonial, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Shingle, Stick, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Neoclassical, Tudor, French Eclectic, Mission, Craftsman, Prairie, and many types of Contemporary.

We often look for a style that "fits" - the site, the neighborhood, the budget, and our lifestyle. While we might admire the high ceilings of a Victorian, the separate formal rooms might not be conducive to more casual living. This raises the question of faithfulness to a style- can we use some elements that we like and change the others?

While purists believe that a style must be all of a piece, we think there is a little wiggle room to mix and match. In fact, almost all styles borrow elements from an earlier time (the moldings commonly used in New England homes today can be clearly seen in ancient Greek buildings), so it's a natural evolution to modify styles to meet present needs.

The trick is to not end up with a "hodgepodge" of thrown together elements. To avoid this, you must understand those aspects of a style that are central and defining Vs those elements that play a lesser supporting role. For example, the defining element of many Colonials is their box-like simplicity and restrained ornamentation. Contrast this with the asymmetrical exuberance of a Victorian, with it's bays and turrets and elaborate millwork. When a builder produces a "Victorian Colonial" by taking a basic box and covering it with pre-fab ornaments, s/he ends up with a house that is neither fish nor fowl!

Decision-making: What to build (style): Style elements

The elements that differentiate one style from another relate to both overall building form, and details such as window and door shapes and moldings. Form elements include the plan of the house (square, rectangular, "L" shaped, irregular) and roof shapes (gable, hip, shed, flat). Within a given style, there are often sub-style variations. For example an Italianate Victorian has a shallow roof pitch and rounded arched window trim, while a Gothic Victorian has a steep roof and a pointed window trim. Most houses were built in transitional eras, where one style was losing popularity while another was gaining, and the house incorporates elements of both. We see this today in new homes that have "traditional" exteriors yet include elements like garages that didn't exist during the original period.

Decision-making: What to build (style): Importance of styles

Styles serve some important functions:

• They offer a set of forms and details that are internally consistent. This greatly simplifies the task of designing all the various elements of a house. During the recent Post-Modern period, some architects embraced a mix-and-match approach to forms and details from various periods. The houses often didn't look "right" because the elements didn't relate well to each other. Styles are like a carefully chosen wardrobe that can be assembled into various outfits that "go together" well.
• They have stood the test of time and form part of our unconscious sense of what a building should look like. We have internalized the relationships and proportions of various styles by having seen thousands of examples in our daily lives. A particular column may look too "skinny" because it doesn't conform to the mental picture we have from other homes we've seen.
• In a neighborhood context, styles allow for variety within a consistent framework. Many New England neighborhoods consist of a mix of Colonials, Capes, Ranches, with perhaps a Tudor and Victorian mixed in. Like in a garden, variety and repetition are the key to a pleasing overall effect.

Decision-making: What to build (style): Creating your own style

While styles are familiar, and offer time-tested sets of coordinated elements, they often limit the potential of a house to truly respond to it's inhabitants and it's site. The best home designs begin as a blank slate, with the design emerging as a response to the client's particular needs and the unique opportunities of landscape, light, and views that the property offers. However, we've all seen houses that look "plopped down" on the site, where the style was chosen without regard to the specific context of the site.

If you are not comfortable with deviating completely from a familiar style, you can choose a style that has the basic elements that you like, and them improvise (except in historically sensitive contexts). By understanding the style's essential principals, you can make changes that retain the broad strokes while embodying your unique aesthetic.

For example, Victorian homes offer not just interesting millwork, but a spirit of asymmetrical exuberance. One could design a Victorian-inspired home today that captured the forms and spirit of the style without replicating some of the inefficient details them make them costly to own.

Another example is the Contemporary style. Many people like it's open spaces and large windows, but find something missing in the Spartan trim and austere detailing. It's possible to soften the style by adding details that are Contemporary, but not cold. Often, natural wood is used for its visual and textural warmth, and as a counterpoint to harder elements like steel and glass. The building's details offer an opportunity to tweak the style to your personal taste. For example, adding a Colonial mantle to a Contemporary fireplace would violate the essentially unadorned essence of a Contemporary, but creating a beautiful stone and wood mantle could amplify the simple and honest nature of the design.

David's Comment