Ann Arbor's Historic Building Styles

The Italianate style was a reaction to the rigidly formal, classical architecture that had dominated American buildings since the early 18^th century.  Taking its cues from Italian Renaissance architecture, this style dominates Ann Arbor's downtown commercial districts along Main, W. Liberty, and Washington. The cube shape is dominant for most residences although “high style" Italianate often features towers or cupolas.   ​

Greek Revival style buildings were prevalent in Ann Arbor between its founding in 1824 and the end of the civil war in 1865. As a new democracy, Americans identified with the ancient democracies of Greece and wanted their architecture to illustrate those ideals. In Ann Arbor, surviving examples of this style are primarily residential. 

The Gothic Revival style was part of a group of revival styles popular in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Typical of the style are steeply pitched roofs, pointed arches, use of quatrefoils and trefoils, and highly elaborate bargeboards which were often outlined in “gingerbread." Large porches with elaborate decorations were also common.

The Queen Anne style is what most people think of as “Victorian" architecture. It is a very busy style, characterized by asymmetry, varying materials,  different size windows and doors, different types of trim, turned spindles, many rooflines, cross gables, turrets, and towers. It was all to dazzle the eye, and it did because of the large amount of lumber and new machinery available. Soon the forests disappeared, and tastes changed.

This style, characterized by heavy cut stone and circular Roman arches, was popularized in the United States by Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson, hence the name of the style. It was used primarily for public buildings such as railway stations, churches, jails, and schools. Richardson found his inspiration in eleventh and twelfth century styles from Spain, France, and Italy. In Ann Arbor, it is characterized by rusticated and polychrome stonework—most were granite fieldstones of varying shades found in the fields of Washtenaw County. 

Shingle style buildings are found all over New England and especially in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  As the name implies, it is characterized by individual shingles on a simplified platform. This platform supports swooping roofs, large open porches and aims to leave the busyness of the Queen Anne behind.

America celebrated its Centennial in Philadelphia in 1876 and this prompted a new interest in Colonial architecture. Research was done on various colonial styles found primarily in New England. The style was derived from various influences including Dutch (the gambrel roof), Federal, and British Georgian styles from the 18^th century. Except for the Dutch styles, most had some classical features. Other common features include multi-paned windows, symmetrical facades with side gables and a center entry, and small porticos with classical columns. Three-part Palladian windows on the second floor, decorative shutters, dormers, and dentil designs all characterize the style.

Georgian Style houses were very symmetrical in exterior treatments and in floor plans. A typical Georgian house would have a center hallway leading from the front to the back of the house, and two rooms off this hallway on either side. This was repeated on the second floor, so these were often called 4 over 4 plans. These two styles dominated most house styles throughout the twentieth century.

Both of these styles grew out of negative reactions to the fussiness and busyness of the Queen Anne style. It emphasized low pitched roofs to refer to a building's organic relationship to the earth; simple decorations such as exposed eaves, rafter tails and large roof overhangs. Often, houses had full width front porches and thus overlapped with the bungalow form. A variety of sidings were used but the most common combination was a clapboard or brick first floor and a shingled (or stuccoed) second floor.

The term “Arts and Crafts" came from California and the bungalows that represented it---this in turn was derived from the British Arts and Crafts movement which was on display at the 1893 Columbian World Exposition in Chicago. The “Craftsman" name came from Gustav Stickley, a furniture maker originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He expanded to New York with a Craftsman magazine, a Craftsman Building, and his Craftsman Farms in New Jersey. Its popularity collapsed after World War I and Colonial Revival replaced it. Stickley survived many more years but they were spent in oblivion. It was a sad ending to a glorious beginning and an important design trend.

Like the Gothic Revival style from the mid-19^th century, the Tudor Revival style was an attempt to recreate “Merrie Olde England" in the new subdivisions being created in the 1920s. Many of the streets in these subdivisions had “Olde English" names like Kensington, Manchester, Collingwood, Wallingford, Oxford, or Cambridge. Tudor houses in these neighborhoods tend to have steeply itched roofs, often asymmetrical with one side being much longer than the other. They also had half timbering (an attempt to create the look of actual construction beams), stucco, leaded or stained glass, oriel windows and large decorative brick chimneys. A round topped doorway usually led into a small foyer that opened into living and dining spaces. This style was the most popular after the Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles.

The roaring twenties produced many cultural and artistic upheavals and the one that took place in Architecture was named Art Deco after the show known as the “Exposition Internationale des​ Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes" held in Paris in 1925. The term 'Art Deco' came much later and was popularized in the 1970s by Bevis Hillier. Art Moderne was a more streamlined version of the Art Deco.

The styles emphasized simple curves and used many other geometric forms as well. Windows became rounder and corners took a decidedly roundish, curvy turn. Materials were simple and sleek:  walls were often of cut limestone that were polished and smoothed. Many areas were filled with geometric and flattened decoration and sculpture. Archaeological advances in Egypt and Mesoamerica contributed new designs to the panoply. Skyscrapers also dominate this period and industrial buildings were characterized by low, long factories. Casement windows became popular. There are also regional varieties in California, Miami, and the American Southwest.

Midcentury Modern Style encompasses a wide range of forms that characterize post-World War II America. It can range from ticky tacky houses made famous in song about being the same, to exuberant and grand homes with a new emphasis on “long and low." The Ranch house, popularized in California, is probably the most famous of these styles and marks a new era in residential construction in America. The style if primarily a residential one. Most had flat roofs, were one story tall, and were part of subdivisions.

Right after World War II, the UM Architecture School led by George Brigham and Robert Metcalf. began hiring many famous midcentury architects. These included Eero Saarinen, Alden Dow, Walter Sanders. William Muschenheim, and Olencki & Albano. Others trained at UM include David Osler and Frank Lloyd Wright also designed and built an iconic house in Ann Arbor. In the 1960s and 1970s it became popular for faculty members to commission these architects to design their homes. Many are clustered in the Ann Arbor/Tuomy Hills area and constitute one of the greatest collections of midcentury modern according to some Michigan architectural historians.