Architectural Terms

Every industry has a unique language or jargon…. The design & construction world is no different. Becoming familiar with architectural terms is one way to make your new construction or remodeling project less stressful. Speak the language and communicate like a pro with paint contractors, architects, general contractors, landscape architects, & remodeling professionals … Here is my ever growing list of Architectural Terms:

Baluster: Vertical member, usually wood, that supports the railing of a porch or the handrail of a stairway.
Balustrade: A railing or parapet consisting of a handrail on balusters, sometimes also includes a bottom rail.
Bargeboard: A board, often decoratively carved, that hangs perpendicular from the projecting edge of a roof gable.
Bevel siding: Tapered wood siding that overlaps for weather protection, applied horizontally on buildings of frame construction.
Board and Batten Siding: A wood siding consisting of vertical boards with narrow
vertical strips (battens) placed over the joints.
Bracket: A projection member, often decorative, that supports an overhanging weight, such as a cornice.
Bulkhead: In commercial buildings, the area below the display windows at the sidewalk level.
Casement window: A window that swings outward on its side hinges.
Column: A supporting round post found on storefronts, porches, and balconies: may be fluted or smooth.

Corbel: A bracket form produced by courses of wood or masonry that extend in successive stages from the wall surface.
Cornerboard: A board used to cover the exposed ends of wood siding to give a finished appearance and help make the building watertight.
Cornice: The projecting uppermost portion of a wall, sometimes treated in a decorative manner with brackets.
Dentil: One of a row of small blocks used as part of the decoration in a frieze or cornice.
Dormer: A structural extension of a building’s roof, intended to provide light and headroom in a half-story; usually contains window(s) on its vertical face.

Double-hung Window: A window with two balanced sashes, with one sliding vertically over the other to open.
Eaves: The lower portion of the sloping surface of a roof, especially the part that overhangs the building’s wall.
Exterior architectural Feature: As defined by ordinance, the term refers to the architectural treatment and general arrangement of the exterior of a structure and its appurtenant fixtures, including type, color, material, and texture.
Façade: The architectural “face” of a building, usually to the front.
Fascia: A flat horizontal wooden member used as facing at the ends of roof rafters and in the cornice area.
Frieze: A wooden member found just below the point where the wall surface meets the buildings cornice or roof overhang.
Gable: The triangular section of the end wall of a gable roof.
Gable roof: A roof that has one slope on opposite sides of the ridge, with a gable at either end.
Gambrel roof: A roof that has two slopes on opposite sides of the ridge.
Ginger bread: Decorative, the collective effect of ornate balusters, brackets, spandrel, columns, and bargeboards found on Victorian homes.
Hipped roof: A roof that has a slope on all four sides of the building.
Hoodmold: Decorative, projecting element placed over a window; may extend down the sides of a window as well as surround the top.
Lintel: Horizontal structure element at the top of a window or door; it carries the load of the wall above and may be of wood, stone, or metal.
Mansard roof: A roof that has a double slope on all four sides with the lower slope being quite steep or nearly vertical.
Modillion: A horizontal bracket or scroll that appears at the building or porch cornice. Known as a block modillion if a flat block.
Mullion: A vertical piece that divides window sash, door panels set close together in a series.
Muntin: The pieces that make up the small subdivisions of multiple-pane glass window.
Ornamentation: Decoration, usually nonstructural, that is applied to a building to increase its visual interest.

Parapet: The portion of an exterior wall that rises entirely above the roof, usually in the forms of a low retaining wall; the parapet may be shaped or stepped.
Pediment: The triangular face of a roof gable; or a gable that is used in porches; or as decoration over windows, doors, or dormers.
Pilaster: A flat pier that is attached to the surface of the wall and has little projection; the pier may be given base and cap, may be smooth or fluted.
Prism glass: Small panes of glass, usually set in a wood or framework in the transom over a storefront or entrance.
Public right-of-way: The boundaries within which the public has a right to travel, even though the property in question may be privately owned. For example, ownership of a city lot may extend to the curb, but there may be public right-of-way along the sidewalk on private land.
Rowhouse: A residential building, usually built as rental apartments, in which the floor plan is commonly repeated from unit to unit, with each unit sharing a wall with the adjacent one. The building has a single continuous wall along the street.
Sash: The framework of window actually supporting glass. Most common is the double-hung sash, both sash slide up and down. Sash may be fixed or sliding, hinged, or pivoted.
Scale: The relationship of the size of a building or object to the size of a human being. Grand or large scale implies a size out of proportion to human size, while small or intimate scale implies the opposite.
Segmental arch: A type of circular arch that does not extend on the sides to a full circle; often found at the top of windows.
Sidelight: A glass panel, usually of multiple panes, to either side of a door; often used in conjunction with a transom.
Sill: Horizontal structural element at base of a window or door, often of stone.
Soffit: A flat wood member used as a finished undersurface for any overhead exposed part of a building, such a cornice.
Spalling: A condition of brick or stone in which layers break off vertically and fall away. Internal pressures due to water freezing or chemicals crystallizing usually cause this.
Structure: As defined by ordinance, a combination of materials to form a construction that is safe and stable. The term includes, but is not limited to, buildings, outbuildings, barns, garages, walls, fences, display signs, scaffolds, trailers, or any object that is used or maintained above or below ground.
Transom: A glass panel, sometimes fixed and sometimes movable, that is placed over a door or window to provide additional natural light and ventilation for the interior of the building. Used on both residential and commercial buildings.
Turret: A corbelled projection, usually located at a corner of a building.
Vapor barrier: A waterproof material that is used to prevent moisture from migrating from damp to dry areas where it may condense and cause problems.
Vernacular: Architecture that draws more on folk traditions and forms, stressing basic functionalism, economy, and utility rather than the “rules,” principles, and ornamentation of high-style architecture. May contain secondary high-style design elements.