United States architecture

Little survives of early indigenous American architecture, although the early settlers in each region recorded the house and village styles of the local Indians. The most notable prehistoric remains are the cliff dwellings in the Southwest. Archaeologists have also discovered traces of structures associated with the moundbuilding peoples in the Mississippi river valley. Subsequent architectural forms are those that came with colonizers from European cultures, those adapted to American conditions and social development, and, most recently, those that were developed and innovated by American architects.

16th and 17th centuries Earliest European architectural influences were those of the Spanish colonizers, coming north from their Mexican colony or from early settlements in Florida; most were small or transitory. Spanish influence in the Southwest and California grew through the 19th century and continued in the 20th. The dominant American colonial architecture came to the east coast from 17th-century English immigrants, but also from Dutch, Swedish, and German settlers.

Generally, new arrivals attempted to reconstruct the architecture they had known in their home countries, making adaptations to available materials and craftsmanship. Wood tended to be the material of choice in the northern colonies; wood, brick, and stone in the middle colonies; and wood and brick in the southern colonies. The earliest styles were primarily for farm homes and some urban dwellings, churches, and a few public buildings. Houses most often were small, had massive chimney stacks, and were timber-framed with brick, clapboard, or wattle-and-daub walls. Early churches and civic buildings were like large houses rather than imposing edifices. By the end of the century, with more settlers, greater resources, and more skilled builders, more elegant and elaborate examples of Jacobean and Queen Anne style were built, and more imposing public architecture was constructed, such as William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia.

18th century Neoclassical style dominated and was referred to as Georgian architecture, although designs lagged behind English sources, and the scale of projects was generally modest. No architects set up offices, but itinerant master craftsmen with plan-and-model books, working for educated colonial sponsors, diffused European-style developments along the eastern seaboard. Many fine homes were built, with distinct variations preferred in each of the colonial regions.

Many churches and public buildings were influenced by British architect Christopher Wren. As settlement moved inland, the rough-hewn timber or log cabin became an American architectural mainstay. Other, finer, buildings from this period include numerous plantation houses, such as Westover or Carter's Grove in Virginia; Dutch patroon mansions along the Hudson River in New York or in eastern Pennsylvania; the then Virginia capital of Williamsburg; churches with steeples, such as Old North Church in Boston, Christ Church in Philadelphia, Christ Church in Williamsburg; public buildings, such as the Old State House or Fanueil Hall in Boston, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, or Charles Bulfinch's new State House in Boston; and numerous urban structures.

19th century Early in the century, neoclassical patterns were used to design the new republic's buildings, such as the Capitol and the White House in Washington, DC. The style was given strong inspiration by Thomas Jefferson, especially after his stay in Europe. He introduced and promoted a revival of Renaissance architecture based on Andrea Palladio and otherwise helped define what is now known as Federal-period architecture. His own work is best seen in his Virginia home, Monticello (which started as an 18th-century Georgian project and which he transformed throughout his life); in his design for the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, adapted from the Roman Maison Carré at Nimes, France; and in his harmonious plan for the campus of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. Other structures from the first half of the century include the Greek-revival work of Charles Bulfinch and Benjamin Latrobe (notably in their work on the US Capitol). After the Civil War, Romanesque forms in stone and brick were promoted by Henry Hobson Richardson. An appreciation for and adaptation of French Renaissance design emerged, as well as a Romantic revival of Gothic architecture in both domestic and public buildings.

20th century Architecture in the early 20th century often combined the elements of earlier times and cultures; pseudo-English Tudor, French Provincial, and Spanish Mission models were built for residences, but Stanford White's Beaux Arts style dominated office buildings, clubs, mansions, and theaters, such as his Madison Square Garden in New York City. Most dramatically, this was the century of the modern architect, and Americans became internationally famous for innovative and creative design, since the skyscraper became the fundamental US contribution to world architecture. Spare, functional modernist form predominated by mid-century, but by the 1980s a return to softening elements was promoted by postmodernists. Notable 20th-century US architects include Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Henry Sullivan, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Eliel and Eero Saarinen, I M Pei, Philip Johnson, Kevin Roche, Minoru Yamasaki, and Edward Durrell Stone.