If you are into domestic (homes) architecture you probably are humming and hawing about which domestic architecture book to get between these three books on Amazon:

American House Styles: A Concise Guide by John Milnes Baker
American Homes: The Landmark Illustrated Encyclopedia of Domestic Architecture by Lester Walker
A Field Guide to American Homes: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture by Virginia Savage McAlester

It can be so hard to tell exactly what each book has to offer in itself as well as and has to offer over it’s competitors. But you are in luck, because I have all three and I will compare them to help you decide which book or books would most satisfy what you are looking for in a domestic architecture book. I really enjoy having all three in my collection, for their different strengths and focuses; and I think if you really love domestic architecture, you will also love having all three in your collection. Each book provides a unique perspective and has a slightly different purpose, so you won’t be frustrated with content overlap if you get more than one of these books or already have some other books in your collection.

American House Styles by Baker: An excellent book to give you a nice quick overview of the history and styles of houses. The book is divided into time periods and their respective styles. Each section starts out with several pages of general introduction on the time period and general details of the house styles to come in the section. Nothing too detailed, but the important essential information is there. Then each section features several different house styles of the period and each style (Queen Anne, Greek Revival, etc.) all have one page of text that details the pertinent essential information and beside that text page is a colour drawing of the exterior facade as well as a floor plan. Now what I LOVE about this book is this: it can be hard to define which styles have grand entryways and which don’t or which styles feature large living rooms and etc. when you are looking at all these different house layouts. The author has a genius method for cutting all that confusion away. He shows you how each style would look with the same modern floor plan (a bottom floor that includes a dinning room, kitchen, living room, bathroom, entry, and laundry room). Because the kitchen is always in the same place and etc., you can flip easily between the styles and clearly and quickly understand: okay this style has a lot of hallways or angles or closets, decorative wall insets, a grand living room, the house is generally bigger than other styles. It also makes it really easy to see which styles involve major internal/structural shifts in design/innovation and which styles are closer offshoots of already formed ideas and their stylistic differences are mainly ornamental. Fabulous! This book is a great place to dip your toe into domestic architecture enjoyment as a hobby.

American Homes by Walker truly is an encyclopedia, but still somewhat concise. This book truly truly covers every single home style in the history of America, right from the American Indians, to the settlers though to today, even including a page on motor homes and different types of mobile homes! Most styles have two pages committed to them, but some of the more iconic styles or the styles that include more variations have four to six pages dedicated to them. Each home style features several paragraphs on the style itself and the time period. There are lots of drawings on each page with little notations in the drawings (like "oversized dormers on hipped roof"). The drawings of the houses with floor plans are set an angle vs. face on, so you can see two sides of the exterior facade. I love this choice because it’s not often utilized but you can really get a good sense of the height, width, and length of each style as well as simply more visuals of the facade. Essential floor levels are also shown underneath in descending order under the "floating" picture of the 3D facade. Soft lines connect the main corners of the homes so you won’t get lost between levels about how it all lays out and where certain levels end before or after other levels. A lot of the homes featured also include their location as well as the architect. Real homes! I can go on the internet, if I like a home, and see real pictures of it/learn it’s history. Fabulous! There is a concise glossary at the end that includes some comparative diagrams like the differences between roof styles like hipped and gable roofs. The author does an amazing job of really adding in a lot of history as well as information on building and styling techniques, but doesn’t overwhelm. Each page has an excellent balance of white space, which helps with balancing information overload. Finally, a great bibliography of the books he has referenced so that you can use this book as a solid jumping off point to find other great architecture books. This book is for you if you have more than a passing interest in domestic architecture or have been a casual hobbyist for a while and if you really want to dive in deep. Also a great book if you enjoy the history aspect of domestic architecture and little factoids everywhere.

A Field Guide to American Homes by McAlester is a book that is very clearly encapsulated by it’s title: a book that helps you identify different home styles by their exterior (not a lot about interiors, like floor plan drawings, in this book) by comparing and contrasting all the larger exterior structural shapes as well as the smaller ornamental choices. One could literally use this book as a field guide while walking around neighbourhoods and enjoying beautiful homes. Would you like to know all the common dormer and window surrounds/styles for Queen Annes? You’ll get that in this book with its many identification drawings. Would you like to know every single type of roof between all the styles? You’ll get that and more in the pictorial key. Are you renovating an old house and you would like to see how certain styles are accomplished through the physical building of the home to help you get an idea of what might be involved in your renovation. You’ll get that as well. This book is divided into era and accompanying homes styles sections. Each section, say the Victorian era, has two intro pages about the time period and its general styles. Then each of those section is divided into subsections: Second Empire or Queen Anne, and etc. These subsections start with maybe four to six pages on the important information about that style as well as a few diagrams and drawings. Then you will get maybe 6 to 14 black and white pages, each containing several pictures, showing the variations of that style with location and building information. This is the book you’ll want if you would like to have a lot of side-by-side full page comparison diagrams showing all the different column styles, roof pitches, exterior cornice choices, and etc. This book also features the most exterior style pictures of the three books, so you’ll really get a good sense of the kind of real-life variation you my see in a style. Great for identifying homes on a walk as real life homes vs. idealized drawings will often dip into more than one style or blend two similar styles together in a way that you are not quite sure which style the house is truly rooted in. This is also a great book to get if you already have another domestic architecture book that you are satisfied with that focuses heavily on interiors/floor plans.

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Category	Architecture

A Field Guide to American Houses (Revised): The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture