American architecture

the long version

From dogtrot cabin to skyscraper, from covered bridge to Crystal Palace (the New York one), from greenbelt to gristmill, from eyebrow window to jib door, from impost to pilaster to Richardsonian Romanesque - American Architecture covers everything to do with the built environment in the United States. Over 2,500 definitions and nearly 1,000 illustrations describe construction materials and techniques, landscape elements, decorative terms, and practical devices, from pre-colonial times to the present, and from indigenous dwellings to deconstructivist structures. Comprehensive, wide-ranging, and accessible, American Architecture is enriched with intriguing historical and biographical nuggets. Students of architecture, architectural historians, preservationists, curators, and general readers, whether architecture buffs or simply curious about the world around them, will find it pleasurable, informative, and sometimes surprising.