This heavily illustrated volume showcases some of the most extraordinary examples of American houses completed within the last ten years, examining in particular the meanings of the abstract forms prevalent in architecture today. Extended captions and an introduction to each house accompany spectacular drawings, photos, and floor plans. 200 color illustrations.

- Unparalleled array of American architects and firms: widely known and under-the-radar, established and up-and-coming, large and small - Unparalleled variety in style and type: traditional, modern, and everything in between; grand villas and small cabins; posh seaside villas, rustic and remote cabins, urban townhouses - Unparalleled diversity in geographical range: from California to Hawaii and many states in between The American House is an exceedingly diverse collection of contemporary residential designs in the United States. This book follows the successful title European House, likewise a gorgeous collection of new residential architecture. The American House contains cutting-edge residential designs by leading architects from across the United States. Stunning color photographs and plans underline the sensitivity of today's architects to the natural environment, as well as the care and attention paid to interior design and everyday living. This new volume features an extraordinary variety in style, sophistication, affordability, site and landscape, with an emphasis on sustainability practices in both design and construction. Each project illustrates how architects adapt their signature styles to accommodate the challenges posed by local topography and variations in climate, along with a sharp focus on optimum strategies for sustainable living. A lively introduction by critic Ian Volner comments on the many trends, often contradictory, that characterize the architecture of houses in the 2010s. In its sweeping scope, this book considers the present and points to the future of residential design in the United States.

America has an abundance of fascinating and varied house styles, as fascinating and diverse as its people. This unique book will allow readers to recognize the architectural features and style of virtually any house they encounter.

Long before designing his signature Usonian houses, Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned an earlier series of affordable models for the middle class: The American System-Built Homes. He developed seven floorplans of varying size and layout, standardized so that materials could be precut at the factory to reduce costs. Only a few years after the project began, the United States entered World War I, and all home construction was stalled due to lumber shortages. Wright then turned his attention to other projects, and with fewer than twenty built, the American System-Built Homes were all but forgotten.In 2011, Jason Loper and Michael Schreiber purchased the only American System-Built Home constructed in Iowa, the Meier House, which set them on a course of refurbishing and researching their new residence. In This American House, Loper and Schreiber trace the history of the Meier House through its previous owners, and shed light on this underexplored period of Wright's oeuvre. With a preface by John H. Waters, the Preservation Programs Manager of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, This American House addresses what it means to be the stewards of a piece of history.

Through hundreds of inspiring photos and engaging text, the author describes what gives traditional homes their enduring appeal, and illustrates the creative work of builders who are forging the movement toward building new homes that capture old-home sensibility.

This magnificent book describes the great country houses built with American industrial fortunes from the end of the Civil War until 1940. The American Country House draws on the rich and often amusing writings of contemporaries to evoke the lives the buildings served as well as architectural shapes they took. 275 illustrations.

Howard Van Doren Shaw designed stately country houses in and around Chicago—from affluent Lake Forest, Illinois, and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and Indiana—from 1894 to 1926, a period in American architecture that spanned the Gilded Age, the adoption of Beaux-Arts classicism as the ideal for civic architecture, the invention of the skyscraper, and the beginning of modernism. Born in 1869, he worked for the leading industrialists of that period, including Reuben H. Donnelley of printing fame, newspaper giant Joseph Medill Patterson, Edward Forster Swift, the meatpacking king, and Edward L. Ryerson of Ryerson Steel. A contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright, Shaw explored many of the same ideas as the Prairie School Architects within the forms of traditional architecture. Though he was recognized as one of the leading country house architects of the early twentieth century, his name was largely forgotten after his death. Like many traditional architects practicing today, Shaw was skilled at adapting historic precedents to suit contemporary living, in particular the easy flow of interior space that became a design hallmark of the period for traditionalists and modernists alike. For the new and fashionable suburb of Lake Forest, Shaw created Market Square, the town center, which was lauded for its design as both a unique town green and the first American shopping center designed to accommodate automobiles. This timely reappraisal of Howard Van Doren Shaw’s work features many previously unpublished images from the Shaw Archive in the Burnham and Ryerson Library at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago History Museum, rare construction drawings, and new color photography as well as a catalogue of Shaw’s residential work. His legacy includes substantial houses in prosperous communities, many of which are still standing—including Ragdale, once Shaw’s own summer house in Lake Forest, now home to the prestigious artists’ community; the Becker Estate on Chicago’s North Shore; and The Hermann House overlooking Lake Michigan.

Presents a guide to one hundred iconic houses, from the thirteenth century to the present day.

A tour of the approximately twenty styles of domestic architecture common to the United States identifies and defines each style--including Colonial, Craftsman, Modern, and Deco--providing historical summaries, sample photographs, and regional information. 20,000 first printing.

More than three hundred historically accurate line drawings highlight this concise, informative guide to the styles and history of American houses from pre-Revolutionary days to the present.