A Field Guide to American Houses

• Identifying American Architecture: A Pictorial Guide to Styles and Terms : 1600-1945
• The Visual Dictionary of American Domestic Architecture
• American Homes: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Domestic Architecture - A landmark reference with more than 1,000 illustrations, elevations, and palns
• American Houses: A Field Guide to the Architecture of the Home
• What Style Is It?: A Guide to American Architecture, Revised Edition

This a great book to have in any architectural office. He told me "If you need help figuring out the style of a house then buy this book" and he showed me his copy. I bought this book as reference material on the advice of an architect friend. He was right. Its great for novices and experienced alike. The book is well organized which helps compare styles quickly and the many black and white pictures of houses that the author uses as examples are great because the b&w contrast helps your eye focus on details.

As a writer, you need lots of details to keep the reader interested, and this book has details on houses most people wouldn't know. A book like this can be invaluable. Of course, if you give no details the story is not interesting, and if you give wrong details, some reader will know it and be disapointed.

By the end, it seemed repetitive, but overall I was impressed with almost everything about this book from the introductions to the last diagrams. Each major style is described with a large stylized diagram with its identifying features labeled, a description of the major subtypes, descriptions of the style's unique elements, a paragraph on the frequency and locations of its occurrence, some historical comments, and then dozens of black and white photographs. After some introductory chapters on the history and theory of homebuilding, the McAlesters commence with descriptions of the different styles. The styles are ordered roughly chronologically, from native dwellings and colonial houses in 1600 to the neoeclectric houses of the 1970s and 1980s. Every time I travel though a historical neighborhood, I am glad that I read this book. (Even my 2006 printing ended with the 1980s).I read the field guide cover to cover - something I never before done with a field guide.

Great book. A great resource for any firm. I'm using for my company to get a true representation of many styles for many of the house I'm designing.

great at housing historygreat describe for the house componentgood picture to show handy book to show at real estate