What's your favorite house style?

Many people like more traditional house styles such as Craftsman, Victorian, or Mediterranean. Others like sleeker modern designs like you see in Dwell magazine. Older house styles have come from many places and many eras.

Colonial and Victorian
The earliest American style that had lasting popularity is Colonial. It has a rich and long history in the East but isn’t seen much in California. A later style that is much loved in San Francisco is Victorian. Actually Victorian can refer to a collection of styles including Queen Anne, Stick style, and Gothic revival. Queen Anne, with its elaborate trim, bay windows, and towers is what most of us in California think of as Victorian.

Revivals of the past
There have been many revivals of past styles including Greek revival, Roman revival, Gothic revival, French chateau, and Tudor. All of these can be seen if you tour around the older neighborhoods of San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland. Tudor was particularly popular in past years. It features steep roofs with crossing ridge lines, tall narrow windows with small panes, and especially exposed wood beams and cross-bracing with stucco in between.

Mission, Italian renaissance, and Pueblo revival
In the early part of the twentieth century various styles inspired by Mediterranean influences were popular. Pueblo revival, first done in California, became known as the Santa Fe style and is best seen in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Italian renaissance is no longer being built, but a newer Italian style, Tuscan, has become very popular for larger homes in California.

Craftsman
Although Craftsman style houses were mostly built between 1905 and 1930 there has been a resurgence in recent years. You can now find books and magazines devoted to the style. Often they are called bungalows which refers to a smallish one-story house with a low roof and a broad front porch. The Craftsman version typically has visible rafters ends, shingled or stucco walls, and a brick fireplace and chimney.

Modern
What many think of as modern architecture is known in architectural circles as the International style. In the first few decades of the twentieth century architects in northern Europe wanted to throw off historical styles and develop something fitting modern times. This led to the stripping away of all ornament, expansive smooth walls, flat roofs, and lots of glass.

Some of the most influential early modern architects credited Frank Lloyd Wright with inspiring their designs. His buildings, however, were not so devoid of ornament, used warmer natural materials, and often had sloping roofs. So the Europeans took the new ideas to an extreme not seen in Wright’s work. My favorite style is strongly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses.

If you could have a new house built for you in any style, what style would it be?

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