Decorative Arts and Architecture Flashcards
Lean-to or Saltbox
Cross Gable
Cross gabled: The result of joining two or more gabled roof sections together, forming a T or L shape for the simplest forms, or any number of more complex shapes.
Chamfers
- in carpentry, cut away (a right-angled edge or corner) to make a symmetrical sloping edge.
Batten Door
Vertical Boards
Framed Overhang with Pendant
Georgian (1700-1830)
Gambrel Roof
The term gambrel is of American origin, the older, European name being a curb (kerb, kirb) roof. Europeans historically did not distinguish between a gambrel roof and a mansard roof but called both types a mansard. In the United States, various shapes of gambrel roofs are sometimes called Dutch gambrel or Dutch Colonial gambrel with bell-cast eaves, Swedish ~, German ~, English ~ , French ~, or New England gambrel.
Gambrel is a Norman English word, sometimes spelled gambol such as in the 1774 Boston carpenters’ price book (revised 1800). Other spellings include gamerel, gamrel, gambril, gameral, gambering, cambrel, cambering, chambrel referring to a wooden bar used by butchers to hang the carcasses of slaughtered animals.
Hipped Roof
Quoins
Masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. They exist in some cases to provide actual strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble and in other cases to make a feature of a corner, creating an impression of permanence and strength, and reinforcing the onlooker’s sense of a structure’s presence.
Stone quoins are used on stone or brick buildings. Brick quoins may appear on brick buildings that extrude from the facing brickwork in such a way as to give the appearance of uniformly cut blocks of stone larger than the bricks. Where quoins are used for decoration and not for load-bearing, they may be made from a wider variety of materials beyond brick, stone or concrete, extending to timber, cement render or other stucco.
Bulustrad
A railing supported by balusters, especially an ornamental parapet on a balcony, bridge, or terrace.
Palladian Window
A large window consisting of a central arched section flanked by two narrow rectangular sections.
Palladianism became popular briefly in Britain during the mid-17th century, but its flowering was cut short by the onset of the Civil War and the imposition of austerity which followed. In the early 18th century it returned to fashion, not only in England but also, directly influenced from Britain
Gothic Revival (1830-1870)
Introduced into the United States in the early 1830s. It was based on the pictureque medieval architecture of France, England and western Europe countries from the 11th to 14th centuries. Although primarily used in churches, it was popularized by archetect Andrew Jackson Downing. It was an outgrowth of the romantic period and literature typified by the novels of Sir Walter Scott.
Typified by steep roofs, ornamentaled versndas and a steep centeral gable often decorated in the Gothic motif and flanked by smaller gables or dormers.
Decorative Bargeboards
Italianate (1840-1880)
Initially, Italianate was adapted by English architects reacting against the disciplined order of classical architectural styles. It was described in American pattern books and quickly became one of the most common of the picturesque styles, which favored asymmetrical , towered, almost storybook villas in country settings. It was a romantic allusion to pastorial past during the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Often used colors of grass, rocks and woods to relate them to the enviroment.
Electrolier
Electrolier was the name for a fixture, usually pendent from the ceiling, for holding electric lamps.
Nogging
Brickwork or horsehair plaster that fills the spaces between studs or framing members.
Lamb’s Tounge Stop and Pip
A decorative flourish in metal, wood or plaster that terminates with an S shape often earns the name “lamb’s tongue”. The pip is the notch that comes after it.
Gunstock Post
Post having an increased size at its top, providing extra strength and support for intersecting joinery. Can also be referred to as a haunch or joweled post.
Rafters and Purlins
Rafters are supporting roof beams that are perpendicular to the ridge beam. Purlins are parallel to the ridge.
Tripple Decker (1880-1930)
An estimated 15,000 three-deckers were constructed in Boston between 1880 and 1930. Dorchester’s three-decker boom made up a third of that construction.
- Windows are carefully placed. Three-deckers feature multiple street-facing front bays, and most buildings boast windows on all four sides to let in natural light from every angle. As the Dorchester Reporternotes, when three-deckers are lined up next to each other, so are the side windows, allowing for residents to have awkwardly direct sight lines into adjacent units. Oh, hello, neighbor!
- Columns are a defining quality. Columns are also minimally decorated and support the building’s characteristic porches. Front porch pillars can extend beyond the first floor, framing second- and third-level porches. The columns are part of the several strong vertical lines seen on a three-decker’s facade that chop up living spaces into sections. They cross with horizontal lines at each level, separating each of the three units.
- If it weren’t for flat roofs, they might look like abnormally tall houses. While three-deckers already resemble three, tiny, stacked houses, their flat roofs make them characteristically urban. “As architecture, they are curious forms, part urban and part suburban,” writes Arthur Krim in The Three-Deckers of Dorchester. “They look like apartments transformed into houses, or perhaps houses overgrown into apartments. They have the flat roofs of the city, but the wooden walls of the country. They appear as row houses transplanted into the suburbs.”
- Three-deckers are always constructed of wood. While other cities were building row houses made of stone and brick, Boston, Worcester, Fall River, and other New England towns stuck with the relatively inexpensive material early settlers had sworn by. A 1977 Boston Redevelopment Authority report cites that the first wooden three-deckers sprang up in South Boston and Roxbury, where wood wasn’t prohibited by city fire laws. Wood proved to be practical and easy to build with when waves of immigrants came to New England after the Civil War.
- A single front door leads into the building. The street entrance is almost always situated on a front porch. It provides access to the first-floor unit as well as to a stairway leading to the upper two. There are, of course, rear doors, opening to a three-decker’s hallmark back porches, which are not often visible from the street.
Spit Jack
Mechanized spit turners, called spit jacks, began to be produced in the eighteenth century. The spit jack worked with a series of pulleys and weights. When the weights were set, the rotisserie (spit) turned, eliminating the need for manual labor for approximately thirty minutes, after which the weights would need to be readjusted.
Half-Timber Window
Herringbone Bracing or Strutting
Common through 19th century. Infill timbers used for decrotive effect. Harringbone bracing refers to the decrotive pieces at 45 degree angles. Oldest version found at Pompei. Half-timbered construction traveled with British colonists to North America in the early 17th century but was soon abandoned in New England and the mid-Atlantic colonies for clapboard facings (an East Anglia tradition).
Cat Slide Roof
Catslides usually appear on the sides of houses in Great Britian, but when British builders emigrated to America they took the idea with them as a way of covering single-storey extensions at the rear of two-storey houses, albeit using cedar shingles rather than thatch. This can be seen all over New England.
Oriel Window
A form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall, but does not reach the ground. Supported by Corbels. The term ‘‘oriel’’ comes from the Latin word ‘‘oriolum,’’ meaning porch. Scholars aren’t sure where oriel windows developed, but during the Middle Ages they appeared with increasing frequency in European and Middle Eastern architecture. By the early 15th century, oriel windows were common in geographic areas where changing seasons with varying light levels encouraged architects to make the most of limited sun.
Corbel
Medieval architecture a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket.
A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure.
Sleeping Porch
Sleeping porches first gained popularity at the turn of the 20th century. Many people believed that fresh air helped sufferers of tuberculosis, a respiratory-system illness which was the leading cause of death at that time in the United States. Health experts then also touted the benefits of fresh air for avoiding other illnesses
