Help On This Architectural Style

Italianate maybe?

I have a reference book at home Melissa, if nobody pegs it before I go home tonight I'll look. I think MM might be right - Italianate, or Romanesque revival. Something in that range.

I love shooting architecture and the trouble comes in when the style is a mixture. It's hard to figure them out then....but you might be right with the Greek revival looking at the columns...

Melissa, look up "Richardsonian Romanesque Revival"....kinda looks like that. I think the Greek revival didn't have the arched windows as much, but I'm not an expert.

If you know the name of the building, i.e. it's remotely historical, you might try googling the building name with "architectural style" - a lot of the listed buildings you can find the generally agreed upon architectural style that way. A local or national historical society may have cataloged it for you already.

The fun thing is that you'll often find completely conflicting information which goes to show these designations are more an art than a science.

I'd put it generally in the Neoclassical camp, but I couldn't guess any further than that.

Well, according to what I could find on my downtown's architectural history, which I'm shocked I actually found something online about it btw!! Downtown Greensboro NC is apparently a mix, hodgepodge of styles. Well thanks for nothing....couldn't you have named what a few of them were please,lol! Never heard of Italianate, this is why I came here to ask, that looks promising for the time of build I think...

The Italianate style was very prevalent within its period of popularity, more so than the Gothic Revival Style. It was especially dominant in the period from 1855 through 1880. Since it was easily adapted to numerous building forms, it became a popular style for urban and rural residences and commercial and institutional buildings. The Italianate style is especially identified as the common architectural theme of mid- to late-19th century commercial buildings that lined the main street of many American cities and towns. Downtown streetscapes of this era are marked by a continuous line of distinctive bracketed cornices.

I shot a building in Port Huron last Sunday and couldn't peg the style. Fortunately, it's on the national register of historic places, therefore it's in Wikipedia, and it's a combination of three architectural styles. No wonder I couldn't figure it out....

I shot this last fall, I will ride downtown this weekend and see if I can glean more info. I think it's condos there now. It's a flat roof, 2 or 3 stories? lol, I better go look again!

Well, you can look for the cornerstone as well, Melissa, and see when it was built. That might help a little.

Nice shot, by the way! Architecture is one of my favorite things to shoot...

Sounds similar to our small downtown here - in fact this document describes it with almost the same terms as I read in our local guide:

http://www.hpo.ncdcr.gov/nr/GF0042.pdf

'Commercial Vernacular version of Italianate.'

PS - that's in general, not per se this building.

Oh thank you Mary, see I didn't know to look for a cornerstone. Mark, I found info here: http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/nc/Guilford/districts.html

Do you know which one of those buildings it is, Melissa? I love how some of the styles are listed as "other" LOL. What the heck does that mean?

Does the glass in the window look...normal or not out of place? The reflection in the original photo was truly horrible and I spent much time on changing it, tried a few different things and finally got happy with this version. Actually pretty proud of getting that part changed. Not concerned about it looking "real" just wanted it to not stand out and look "fake", well except to Mike maybe! lol Wanted the whole working together and complimenting the building aspect.

Melissa - I take those types of sites with a grain of sand:

From the footer of the site:

"American Dreams Inc., the developers of this web site; nationalregisterofhistoricalplaces.com, is not affiliated in any way with the U.S. Dept. of Interior, the National Park Service, or the National Register of Historic Places"

At least they are honest that they aren't affiliated. The forms that have been filed with the actual National Register I consider to be more reliable because they usually are on top of things trying to make sure they get their historic buildings and districts onto the list. I know when our town sought to get our downtown district on the list an expert was hired to catalog the architecture and submit the forms.

PS It's also helpful because they'll have often filed paperwork for buildings that didn't make the list but the forms are still on file.

The windows look great, Melissa. They remind me of how a classical painter would have painted the glass in a painting.

I shot a building a while ago with a beautiful exterior and nice brickwork, but there were piles of office supplies in the windows. I just make the windows a uniform color and it came out looking good. Got rid of those ugly, distracting piles of paper and metal shelving.

Wait, that's not the official one?! Here's the downtown info. This is on the same street as the Woolworth's building where the sit in was in the 60's.

Downtown Greensboro Historic District
(added 1982 - Guilford County - #82003458)
Also known as Downtown Greensboro
Elm, S. Davie, S. Green, and E. and W. Washington Sts. , Greensboro
(580 acres, 108 buildings)

Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Multiple
Architectural Style: Mixed (More Than 2 Styles From Different Periods)

edit: thanks Mary! love using these textures and love that I have learned how to over and underlay!!

They appear to be selling metal wall plaques, but they likely get the info. from the actual national register. It is, after all, public info.

PS Browsing it a little more, the ads change, so I guess it's just a general ad supported site.

Isn't Photoshop wonderful? LOL. I pulled up an old torqued and angled photo last week of part of a building and thought "hmmmm". Threw it in Photoshop and used the "skew" function to make it look like I shot it straight on, and it looks wonderful. Before in my old film days, that would never have been a keeper.

It's Neoclassical.

Mary, I don't have Photoshop, I've been doing my texture work in Smart Photo Editor! This was the strange angle you get when shooting up, I was mostly able to fix it in LR4, but it's still off a bit. Any more adjustments I tried beyond this point were not helping. Decided to not worry about it, because the focus is the colors, textures and shape of the window, hopefully not the fact that I can't get the top straighter or aligned more - kept moving the middle off, the middle is pretty straight and that's where the eye will go, so...

Yes, Neoclassical looks promising too, thanks Olivier and Mark :o)

It looks like a combo of Gothic Revival and Neoclassical.

Ok, I'm home now and I have my reference books open - disclaimer here, I'm no expert - it looks to me like Classical Revival, which is a bit later than Neoclassical. If you can find out what year it was built, that would narrow it down. The Neoclassical style was earlier than Classical Revival. Neoclassical was the late 1700s early 1800s and the Classical Revival was a bit later like the late 1800s but the two styles are related.

Thanks for starting this thread, Melissa. Since I shoot a lot of architecture, I'm trying to learn the styles, but there's such a hodge podge in some of these buildings, it's hard to narrow it down sometimes.

But, like I said, Roseann may be right, and Olivier may be right....I'm just trying to learn.

EDIT - ok one book says Neoclassical was late 1700s and one book says it was late 1800s so maybe I should pull a Roseann Rosanadana and say "never mind" LOL

Indeed Mary, well done! It is revival since the materials are relatively modern. It looks like the ornamental plate below the window as well as the top of the columns (capitals) are made of cast iron, like on many late 19th century commercial building.

And very good point Roseann: the keystone is definitely a Gothic detail.

This is fun!

I'm thinking, Olivier, since the one book does not list Classical Revival, which the other book says is related to Neoclassical, they just didn't break it down that far, right?

It IS fun. I've taken a couple of art history classes with, of course, architecture included, but the newer buildings (1700s forward), copied so many styles in one building, it's hard to distinguish if you're not an expert.

I mean, obviously if you look at a 13th or 14th century church, you can tell right away if it's Gothic or Romanesque, (Romanesque being earlier), but the newer stuff is kind of mix and match. At one time, I could tell you what kind of vault ceiling was in each cathedral, but I've gotten rusty at it.....

EDIT - I wanted to be an architect when I grew up, but I found out there was math involved, so I went into the foreign language field instead LOL. No math.

Yes Mary. Revival style usually applies to "newer" architectural interpretations, from the late 19th to the early 20th century, of styles introduced earlier in America. Styles that were in their days revivals too. I used the term Neoclassical at first because I think it encompasses all forms of that type of architecture, revival and earlier. It's a broader, better-known term, therefore a better keyword, in my opinion.

Now, Gothic and Romanesque are not always that obvious to spot!!! Check out this guy's photo: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/roman-but-gothic-olivier-le-queinec.html (just kidding, that's a rare example.)

hmmm, those windows do seem to have a little bit of an identity crisis.

When I was in Paris once, I had to go visit St. Denis, a basically Romanesque cathedral, with the first Gothic elements introduced when it was expanded in I think about 1230. (or was it 1320?). Anyway, as a fan of architecture in general, it was a thrill to stand in the structure that's generally regarded as having the first Gothic elements in Europe. Then there's Chartres. It's a schizophrenic building too....Ok I looked it up - St. Denis was altered in 1140-1144. I AM rusty.

Sorry, Melissa, see what you started? LOL

"...those windows do seem to have a little bit of an identity crisis." Exactly! Very funny.

It is fun to study the style and see if we can figure it out. It's like a mixed media architecture. :-)

Here's a great link I've been on several times today during this conversation! http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/late_19th___early_20th_century_revival_period/2390

Also, searching online today, I discovered our "Blandwood Mansion" museum's giftshop has a book on Greensboro Architecture that I believe I should invest in...

That looks like a good site, Melissa. You can generally find anything on the internet. As for the book, go for it!

Great thread to keep ongoing. There is always that " Hmmm... what IS this... ? " capture we have.

Better than tagging everything "colonial" . Lol.

This is America: everything is colonial!!!!!

Yes, Melissa, that PA Web site is a very good online resource. For the ultimate guide to American architectural styles in a book, I think the best one is still A FIELD GUIDE TO AMERICAN HOUSES by Virginia and Lee McAlester.