America's Contribution to Residential Architecture
April 8, 2008
I recently read an article concerning architectural styles. In the Inland Empire we are blessed with a large variety of residential properties. To some extent it is possible to date a house by the design that the tract builder incorporated in his homes. In this current building cycle (2000+) builders have used craftsman styling to enhance the homes. Just take a drive around a community and you can identify popular architectural design.
Most of the homes of recent times mimic some other design and era but the "true" American contribution to residential architecture is the ranch-style house.
I quote from an article by Katherine Salant of Inman News "A small number of architects working in California and the southwest during the 1920s and 30s designed the first suburban ranch- style houses. These were based on simple, one story houses built by working ranchers who lived in the harsh climate of the plains and the mountains of the West. For young architects seeking forms that were defined by their function and not layers of Victorian brick a brack or the colonial-styled treatments that were popular in the East, the ranchers' houses had particular appeal....
Because the architects' clients were usually wealthy, the houses were big, often sprawling across the owner's building lot as the ranchers' houses sprawled across the prairie....
In 1945 American home builders faced an unprecedented challenge....with the war's end, home builders faced several million buyers who were eager to leave crowded and often substandard apartment living in cities for houses in the suburbs ...."
The compact ranch house was developed to meet this demand and 1000s of ranch houses sprang up in California. For the next 30 years, from the late 1940s to the end of the 1970s, the ranch house was the dominant house form in the entire United States.
Interestingly, we are seeing a renewed interest in these "vintage" ranch-style houses. For those of you who live in one of these, be aware that you have an "American original ".
I recently read an article concerning architectural styles. In the Inland Empire we are blessed with a large variety of residential properties. To some extent it is possible to date a house by the design that the tract builder incorporated in his homes. In this current building cycle (2000+) builders have used craftsman styling to enhance the homes. Just take a drive around a community and you can identify popular architectural design.
Most of the homes of recent times mimic some other design and era but the "true" American contribution to residential architecture is the ranch-style house.
I quote from an article by Katherine Salant of Inman News "A small number of architects working in California and the southwest during the 1920s and 30s designed the first suburban ranch- style houses. These were based on simple, one story houses built by working ranchers who lived in the harsh climate of the plains and the mountains of the West. For young architects seeking forms that were defined by their function and not layers of Victorian brick a brack or the colonial-styled treatments that were popular in the East, the ranchers' houses had particular appeal....
Because the architects' clients were usually wealthy, the houses were big, often sprawling across the owner's building lot as the ranchers' houses sprawled across the prairie....
In 1945 American home builders faced an unprecedented challenge....with the war's end, home builders faced several million buyers who were eager to leave crowded and often substandard apartment living in cities for houses in the suburbs ...."
The compact ranch house was developed to meet this demand and 1000s of ranch houses sprang up in California. For the next 30 years, from the late 1940s to the end of the 1970s, the ranch house was the dominant house form in the entire United States.
Interestingly, we are seeing a renewed interest in these "vintage" ranch-style houses. For those of you who live in one of these, be aware that you have an "American original ".
posted by shirley harry at 9:18 AM
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