In 1975, Historic Seattle contracted with architect and activist Victor Steinbrueck and Folke Nyberg to survey Seattle's neighborhoods. The project, funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, provided a tremendous resource which is still valuable today. The following is an excerpt from the survey that helps to contextualize the various architectural styles found throughout the city.

Images included within this text appeared in the publication, An Urban Resources Inventory for Seattle.

Styles of Building Commonly Found in Seattle

Building and architectural styles are not necessarily precise or specific as are species of botany or zoology. Buildings may be pure examples but more often combine aspects of different architectural styles. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify the major stylistic appearances of a building and thereby to associate it with its period of construction. Often buildings have been 'improved' or added to in a different fashion at a later date. This may add to the confusion if not the beauty. Buildings are dated by their styles, materials, and workmanship or technology. It is possible to consider style as packaging although it should be more than that.

There are only thirty-two styles of buildings illustrated here although it is not difficult to name at least twice that number and the variations might be the square of those numbers. A similar style varies with its times. An original Colonial house is different from a Colonial house of 1910, which is different in turn from one of 1925, or 1950, and especially from a so-called 'Colonial' of 1975. Styles illustrated in this guide are thought to be most significant locally although many important styles such as Gothic Revival, and other eclectic revival styles are omitted because of space limitations.

Everyday building tend to be favored in this inventory guide because it is so prevalent as well as so neglected by most architectural surveys and guides. It is hoped to increase appreciation for common buildings by this emphasis.

Dates for building styles are not quite the same in Seattle as elsewhere because a style may have come here late and lingered on longer than elsewhere, or died aborting. Some styles may never have flourished here. For instances, not a single example of Art Nouveau can be found.

Seattle architecture may be less original and less distinguished because of the distance from the fountainhead of Eastern sources, as well as a result of the cultural and economic climate.

There has been little original creative work except in the Northwest Regional Style and perhaps in some contemporary architecture. Buildings and architecture are an expression of the forces that create them that is much more than just the architects. There is much building that has not involved architects and often they are not the most significant force. Other more powerful forces are economic, technological and cultural conditions as well as such mundane factors as building codes, and government and financial controls and institutions. However, buildings inevitably express the character of their vicinity in many ways. This inventory may help in the awareness and analysis of the essential qualities of each neighborhood and eventually the whole city.

The approach of this guide is to illustrate and describe individual styles of architecture through their visual characteristics and then to associate the buildings with their times. A more effective approach may be to identify and describe the periods of growth historically, and then to associate buildings and styles with their eras. This may be done in developing a guide for future use. An illustrated glossary would be useful too. The illustrated lectures to volunteer neighborhood groups are intended to be an adjunct to the field guide.

The purpose of this guide is to increase knowledge of buildings for the lay surveyor. It is recognized that really meaningful comprehension must come from actually experiencing buildings in their settings in the field. Learning to know by seeing is the only way. For those who wish further guidance to styles of American architecture, the best written source is Marcus Whiffen's American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles (M.I.T. Press, Cambridge 1969).

Pioneer, ca. 1850-1890

These austere, plain, two-story homes are similar to those in New England from where many pioneers came. Dimensions are usually 18 to 20 feet wide and 30 to 40 feet long with a shed roofed kitchen at the rear. The upstairs is not full ceiling height at the eaves but has coved ceilings in the bedrooms. The steep pitched gable roofs are of local Western Red Cedar shingles. Stud wall wood framing is commonly enclosed with horizontal 1 x 6 Douglas Fir drop siding with a wide V-joint exposed. Corner boards and window and door trim are usually plain 1 x 6 fir boards. Windows are always wood double-hung with two or four glass panes in each sash. Floor framing is set directly on the ground with 'mud sills,' or on wooden beams and posts.

Decorated Pioneer ca. 1860-1900

Very similar to the Pioneer style homes except for the addition of band-sawn wooden decoration. Ornamentation is in the form and fancy gable ends often with open scrollwork at the peak and with patterns of fancy butt shingles. Door and window trim may be more decoratively shaped with a simplified pediment. Occasionally, the front living room window and the front door transoms are in an ornate glass pattern. Roof forms may be more complicated with a side gable. Porches with turned or chamfered posts might occur. These buildings are essentially the basic Pioneer houses with a little more ostentation as expressed in fancy carpentry work.

Pioneer 'Classic' Box ca. 1870-1900

Similar materials and construction to the Pioneer house but built for more-well-to-do families and usually of a little later era in Seattle. These homes are somewhat larger, commonly about 30 to 40 feet with a kitchen at the rear and a front porch. Posts and railing are frugally decorated with band-sawn or turned lathe work. Siding and corner boards are the same as in the plain Pioneer house, and windows are always wooden double-hung type. Roofs are hipped and lower pitched sometimes with a lookout platform at the peak. The roof edge is cornice-shaped with ornate wooden corbels along a sort of entablature. The second floor is full height and the rooms are larger than in the earlier Pioneer.

False Front Pioneer ca. 1860-1915

For commercial purposes simple gable roofed buildings not unlike the Pioneer house were treated with a rectangular false façade covering the front gable end to symbolize its function and perhaps to give an impression of greater size. The large otherwise useless space of the façade also afforded opportunity for an appropriate sign. Some fronts were simply an unadorned flat surface with square board corners and tops, while others may have been treated in a more classic fashion with a cornice and brackets. Front windows were large and not operable except for transoms. This style is common throughout the West.

Ornate Victorian ca. 1875-1899

There are many styles of Victorian residential architecture. Queen Anne is the best known; however, there are local examples of Eastlake, Italianate, Shingle Style and Stick Style as well. Generally identification is by their ornateness, irregular plans and massing, decorative craftsmanship in carpentry and masonry, and variety of textures. Details tend to be small in scale. Because of local scarcity as well as the mongrelization of styles, identification as Victorian suffices for this inventory.

Richardsonian Romanesque ca. 1889-1900

This is the style mainly associated with Seattle's Pioneer Square Historical District. It is heavy round-arched style like all traditional Romanesque, but handled in a more original and create manner as adapted to commercial or institutional purposes. There is a general largeness and heavy simplicity of form. A progression of diminishing sizes of arches may occur in upper stories of multistoried buildings. Ornament is floral or animalistic but handled in a rather original fashion and carved in stone or terra cotta. Brick is most common for walls, however, stone is used for entrances and other elements. Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886) is the Eastern (East US) architect for whom this style is named.

Shingle Style Victorian ca. 1889-1905

The extensive use of shingles on exterior walls particularly above the first floor is the most obvious characteristic. There is often an emphasis on horizontality and roofs may be gabled, hipped, or gambrel with complicated intersections. Windows are small paneled and often form horizontal bands. Massing may include a variety of geometric forms reminiscent of Romanesque architecture in composition with segmental bays, round turrets, convex and polygonal forms, and dormers rampart. There is less variety in color and texture than in Victorian buildings. Fieldstone or rubble was favored for masonry.

Almost style-less or anonymous are these plain buildings without the ornamentation or guild or either traditional or contemporary elements or manners. Direct honesty in the use of conventional materials and orthodox construction methods may produce enduring simplicity.

Commercial (Chicago) Style ca. 1898-1918

Straight fronts with flat roofs and level skylines from three to six stories high (in Seattle). Large rectangular regular windows and strong structural expression dominate. Brick or stone are the facing materials. There tends to be an even balance between horizontal and vertical facing elements with spandrels either on the plane of the columns or recessed. There is little decoration but when it occurs it is likely to be classical. A simple cornice may terminate the façade.

Sullivanesque ca. 1890-1910

In the Chicago School of architectural styles, Sullivanesque is distinguished by the special character of the relief ornamentation that combines stylized and geometric forms with natural appearing foliage elements. There is a great variety of linear interlaces and other repetitive motifs, in the linear bands of terra cotta or plaster which are used for ornamentation. The buildings are simple and direct with flat roofs and strong rectilinear cornices. Windows are either linteled or arched or both. Piers often run full height in multi-story buildings. The style is named for Louis Henry Sullivan (1856-1924), a Chicago architect who added his own creativity to the tradition of Henry Hobson Richardson.

(Neo) Classic Revival ca. 1895-1918

The use of the classic (Roman or Greek) orders, usually with porticos and pediments is the identifying characteristic. Sometimes only a porch was done in the classic manner on an otherwise plain building. Doorways and windows are ordinarily made with lintels rather than arches. Buildings are usually large and large in scale (or relation to people). Symmetry and careful ordering of parts of such as the fenestration, the general massing and regular roof lines are another aspect of these very traditional conservative but idealistic buildings.

Eclectic Renaissance ca. 1900-1930

Usually large, straight-fronted buildings which are large in scale (or relation to people) as well. Massing and detail is symmetrical. Authentic copying of the Renaissance (mainly Italian) elements tend to be applied to façade or wall surfaces. Sculptural ornament in the classical manner is applied. A heavy cornice crowns the often-plain walls where windows may be elaborately framed and pedimented. Pilasters are preferred to freestanding columns.

Georgian Revival ca. 1900-1930

Influenced by New England Georgian Colonial, these buildings are rectangular in plan with only minor projections and are either two or three stories high. Roofs are hipped or gabled perhaps with small dormer windows. Red brick or painted wooden siding are the usual wall materials. The central entrance is usually pedimented and may be one or two stories in height with classic columns or pilasters. The entrance motif may be quite shallow or possibly be an actual porch. The eaves are treated in the form of classical cornices. Windows are double-hung wood sash with small lights. Conservative dignity is expressed, or at least intended by these very correct eclectic buildings.

Tudor Revival ca. 1900-1940

Steep pitched gable ends are emphasized and half timbering is dramatized in this picturesque style mainly associated with traditional English Gothic buildings. Red brick, especially for the lower floor, is almost always used. Cast stone is sometimes used to accent doorways or windows and may be ornamented in a Gothic manner. Arches are segmented. Windows may be leaded particularly in doors, sidelights, and transoms. Steep pitched single window dormers are usual. Dark stained woodwork may also be decoratively carved as on the verge boards or at posts or doorways. In eclecticism, this type fulfilled a need for both conservatism and romanticism as contracted with the more formal Classic or Colonial Revivals.

1900 'Classic Box' ca. 1900-1918

These somewhat styleless box-like houses are not recognized by architectural historians. Classical elements are often introduced, adding a little district to the rather ponderous mass. Roof s are hipped over the bulky two-story form, usually with bay windows at the corners of the second floor bedrooms also hip roofed. Often there is a cute, or exotic small decorative window of unusual shape at the center of the second floor façade.

Prairie Style ca. 1902-1928

The emphasis is strongly horizontal with low sweeping roof planes either hipped or gabled with broad overhanging eaves. Other elements dramatizing the horizontal motif are bands of wooden casement windows with their sills running around the house. Contrasting white stucco above brown stained horizontal siding is very typical. Single story wings often reach out in different directions from a two story central mass. Tops or caps of all parapets, balcony rails, and posts are heavily capped. Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959) is the famous master of this style of house.

Shingle Style ca. 1900-1915

Smaller residences developed as this style came more into an everyday anonymous idiom; however, the principles of combining a variety of geometric forms continued. Obviously shingle sidewalls, especially on upper stories are characteristic. Roofs are of moderate pitch with sharp edges, perhaps including a simple shed or gable dormer. Round turrets or circular are often included. Shingle Style bungalows are common in the Seattle area. They are the most original, and most American of the important styles, and may have had the most worthwhile influence on regional contemporary residential architecture.

Colonial Revival ca. 1900-1940

Usually symmetrical and rectangular in plan with classical millwork elements, these conservative two-storied residences are seldom authentic or original, but do recall the styles of Colonial America. Roofs may be either gabled or gambrel in form and seldom hipped. There is always an entrance usually in the center on the long side whether facing the street or not. Colonial details in the classical manner are always present - sometimes over-simplified - in porches, doors, columns, windows, and other millwork items. Exact dating of these traditional buildings is difficult because they have continued to be used throughout the mid-twentieth century.

Craftsman Style ca. 1900-1920

Distinguished by originality and a craftsman-like use of materials, particularly natural materials of wood and stone, the same buildings might also be Bungaloid, Prarie, California Mission, Stick, Shingle, or Northwest Regional style. Natural dark-brown stained wood - either shingled or lapped bevel siding - are common, as is the use of stone or rough brick for chimneys and porch posts in these progressive and romantic homes. Structural expression in the use of heavy exposed wooden columns and beams often occurs. Hardware or other architectural metal items are often hand crafted, or look so. The use of angle-braced wooden brackets or corbels is almost a hallmark of the Craftsman Style in Seattle.

Eclectic Classic ca. 1910-1940

Obviously not unlike the earlier Classic Revival, there is the use of the classic orders in a more conforming or correct fashion as architects sought for more authenticity in the selection of traditional styles. The Classic styles were held to be appropriate for important institutions such as the governments (e.g. post offices, libraries, banks, courthouses, and some educational institutions). Built over many years, however, refinement of detailing and workmanship provides necessary clues. Less refinement and more stereotyping havs been the trend from earlier times.

Bungaloid ca. 1900-1920

Bungalows are in many styles and with varying character, however, they must be one story or appear to be so. Commonly in this locality they are a story and a half with a broad sloping gable roof either way across the house and with materials and workmanship expressive of the Craftsman Style. They might also be in a so-called "Colonial" manner using some standard millwork details associated with Colonial design such as a porticoed porch or other minor elements. Another form is with a broad porch able interlocked with the main house gable on the street side.

Tudor or English (Builder) ca. 1918-1940

Steep pitched roofs with exposed gable ends are the most essential and most characteristic aspect. Roof overhangs at the eaves or gables are necessarily minimal. Sidewalls are red brick, and sometimes 'half-timbered' into stucco or brick on gable ends or second stories. Wooden siding may also be used. Steep pitched small dormer windows and decorative chimney tops are additional typical elements. Roofs may have only a single gable, however, intersecting gable forms are more frequent as are partially overlapping gable ends or porches. All roofs are steep. These are the stereotypes descending from the original medieval buildings.

California Mission Style ca. 1910-1918

Low-pitched red-tiled roofs, arched openings, and curvilinear shaped gables are the identifying features along with white or light-colored stucco walls. Roofs are either hipped or stopped against shaped gables or entirely hidden by parapets. Balconies and towers or turrets are common. Locally this style is mixed up with Spanish or Californian Colonial that followed it. The later style would be more likely to use ornamentation and classic elements. In California these styles are called Spanish, but here the California label is substituted.

Colonial Bungalow ca. 1920-1940

The house shown is of the 1940 vintage with its economical massing, detail, and typical corner window. There is little difference except in the styling form a Suburban Ranch house or other speculative building houses of the same times. As eclecticism was dying, most residential homebuyers still sought traditional, though simplified styles. The Colonial millwork elements establish it publicized style although it is quite plain otherwise. The traditional elements are at the front door almost exclusively although the windows and cornice are in character.

Industrial

Industrial buildings such as this Seattle City Light plant built in 1911 are obviously functional buildings built for industrial purposes. Industrial buildings have always been a part of the Seattle scene since the earliest lumber mills. Usually recognizable for their purpose, they incorporate utilitarian materials and elements very directly. Industrial buildings are often clustered together in non-residential areas zoned for manufacturing, however, this is not always true and some intrude into residential or commercial areas. They are beginning to be recognized are representing the technology of their times and are often seen as landmarks because of their size. Windows and many architectural elements are repetitive.

Art Deco ca. 1928-1940

Art Deco is one of the 'Modernistic' styles and like the others is particularly related to the style of ornament which is applied, rather than created as the result of methods or materials. The ornamentation is not traditional nor eclectic but more original and related to cubism in art. Also, the ornamentation tends to be particularly geometric, and based on repetitive shapes and stylized floral patterns, possibly almost stereotyping and abstracting Sullivanesque ornament. Locally strong decorative horizontal banding in walls is often used.

International Style ca. 1935-

Regular, usually rectangular or cylindrical forms, asymmetrically and sculpturally composed without ornamentation, and with the use of flat roofs and plain smooth wall surfaces of white stucco, flush boards, or occasionally smooth masonry are characteristic of this style founded in Germany in the early 1920s. Windows are large, regular, and expressive interior use and volume. Corner windows and cantilevered elements are typical and white is the favored color.

Northwest Regionalism ca. 1947 -

Brown or tan stained or natural wood siding or shingle walls with a pitched cedar shingle roof are the hallmarks of this style. A natural setting is preferred, or at least trees are retained and native shrubs used in landscaping. A direct expression of material and workmanship particularly in the use of wood and masonry as well as a relationship to "outdoor living" with broad terraces or balconies are typical. The work of architect Ellsworth Storey in the first twenty years of this century was progenitive to this style which has been transmogrified by contemporary architects in recent years through an awkward blending with the International Style.

1950 Builder ca. 1947-1960

Roman brick walls, hipped roofs with composition shingles, decorative wrought iron railings and porch supports, aluminum sash and corner windows identify these one-story homes built for sale by small contractors. They are usually L-shaped in plan with a small concrete entrance porch at the intersection. Typically the main floor is raised about three feet above the ground with shallow basement windows exposed.

Miesian ca. 1950 -

Named for architect Ludwig Meis van der Rohe, one of the leaders in the International Style. The variation from the International Style is in the direction of regularity and precision, with a modular patter established by the structure which is often steel and is visible. Symmetry and lots of glass walls in rectangular forms are further identifying characteristics of this most clean and direct of contemporary styles. Architectural details are very well thought out and carefully handled.

Suburban Ranch House ca. 1947

After World War II, the response to the great demand for housing and the popularity of an imagined suburban life-style encouraged the development of hordes of large scale speculative residential development in outlying areas - some within the city limits. Often traditional motifs were incorporated into small homes so that different stylistic labels could be attached. Roof shapes, applied millwork items, siding materials and colors identified the styles. Plans were essentially the same - one story with attached 2-car carport or garage. Government controls established minimum room sized which became maximums in actuality. The Ranch House style came from California.

Brutalism ca. 1965-

Broad, heavy appearing wall surfaces of exposed concrete or brick with deep penetrations for door and window openings or for balconies which have the feeling of voids or holes are typical of the style. The structure is usually concrete and often exposed. An over-heavy, or massive solidity resulting in an environmental harshness gives this style its name. The scale or relation of mass and detail to human beings is brutal.

View last month's Techniques & Technology article

Back to Top