# What are your favorite architecture styles? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 3, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423 "2017-09-03T20:37:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/21 "2017-09-04T15:00:18Z")
I like pretty much everything except Gothic and postmodern. Postmodern usually doesn’t seem to be making a coherent statement, and when it does, it isn’t saying something I like. Every other style I can think of besides Gothic has its place. But even _in_ its place, Gothic seems to be too opulent for the implied asceticness of the church. It seems more in conformance with the other uses of the word Gothic: beautiful on the outside, decadent and evil on the inside. Gothic would be an appropriate architecture for [Minas Morgul](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Minasmorgulpj.jpg) (and that interpretation even has flying-buttressy things on it). ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/22 "2017-09-04T15:21:35Z")
Greek Revival is my favorite. I really want to restore a classic plantation house like Tara from Gone with the Wind or an even prettier one. Italianate houses are also gorgeous as are true Victorians and Colonials. I will save most of my Frank Loyd Wright and Frank Gehry comments for another thread because they make me so mad. Let’s just say that people people named Frank shouldn’t be allowed to build anything larger than a doghouse because they will just cause architectural pollution and then be really arrogant about it. Ta-Da! The joke is on us and now people have to live with it. As for Brutalism, I don’t enjoy being punched, kicked or slapped in real life and I expect my buildings to reciprocate but Brutalist buildings are like a constant assault on the senses that you can’t get away from. Hello Comrade, welcome to Hell!. No, I am not having any of it. Make things pretty and inviting for your average person and everything else will follow. Draw your dark, sick dreams on a piece of paper in your bedroom when your parents are not around. You don’t have to actually ask people to spend millions of dollars to build them because some of them will fall for it and that is just taking advantage of people with poor judgement. In better news, Frank Lloyd Wright is dead and is expected to stay that way. That is a major achievement much like taking out Osama Bin Laden. He is not going to bother us anymore. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/23 "2017-09-04T19:02:33Z")
Brutalism is for comic-book super-villains. I like Baroque and Art Nouveau. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/24 "2017-09-04T19:29:43Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > In better news, Frank Lloyd Wright is dead and is expected to stay that way. Alas, despite the assurance that the universe has a loving god watching over it, Gehry is still with us. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/25 "2017-09-04T19:47:01Z")
For commercial buildings I like Art Deco, at least as a general style. I’d love to see the [Bradbury Building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_Building) someday, which Wikipedia describes as Italian Renaissance Revival. And there a [building](http://131dartmouthstreet.com/) in Boston I’ve always liked, at least from the outside, but I’m not sure what style to describe it as. For homes I like Victorian, but I’d want to design my own without all the limitations of an old house; proper heating and cooling, large closets, a garage and workshop. > [@JohnGalt](#): > > There’s a [Frank Lloyd Wright](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/minnesota-home-designed-frank-lloyd-wright-sale-original-furniture-and-all-180962946/) house for sale in Minnesota that is simply stunning, but I think living in it would be like living in a college library (check out the pictures). I had a similar impression when I toured Fallingwater. It’s an absolutely stunning building, but I think I’d find it very hard to live there. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/26 "2017-09-04T19:59:23Z")
I was just there a month or so ago and I wouldn’t want it as my full-time home but it would make a great weekend getaway which is what it was used for. Especially if you were entertaining with all the patio space and open living room (which I don’t normally like but again, on the weekends you want to encourage casual interactions.) On the other hand, I don’t think it fits in really well with the surroundings like the tour guides kept claiming. I think it works better if you consider it a deliberate contrast. I guess it looks too much like Brutal-ish concrete for me to consider it blending in with nature. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/27 "2017-09-04T20:07:17Z")
Anything with a flying buttress ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/28 "2017-09-04T20:47:43Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > There’s a [Frank Lloyd Wright](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/minnesota-home-designed-frank-lloyd-wright-sale-original-furniture-and-all-180962946/) house for sale in Minnesota that is simply stunning, but I think living in it would be like living in a college library (check out the pictures). I do like mid-century modern up to the 1970’s; the Brady Bunch house would be nice to live in. Very stylish building, but what’s up with the "rope swing in a dojo’ room towards the end of the picture roll? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/29 "2017-09-04T22:30:58Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > There’s a [Frank Lloyd Wright](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/minnesota-home-designed-frank-lloyd-wright-sale-original-furniture-and-all-180962946/) house for sale in Minnesota that is simply stunning, but I think living in it would be like living in a college library (check out the pictures). I do like mid-century modern up to the 1970’s; the Brady Bunch house would be nice to live in. The [Darwin-Martin house](https://parks.ny.gov/historic-sites/images/77ccbb15-8b6f-4bfe-9741-1c0f2a2d8e75.jpg) in Buffalo, NY is stunning as well. I like Wright’s prairie style. I also really like [Craftsman](https://cdn.houseplans.com/product/10hv37bom24l7vd8sj52p4ka99/w800x533.jpg?v=12) [style](http://images-24.har.com/e1/MediaDisplay/24/hr3591324-2.jpg) [houses](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/bf/05/7b/bf057babf0ccdc5ecf3270c0c082a6d6--craftsman-style-bungalow-bungalow-designs.jpg). The third one is similar to our bungalow, but without the brick. Then there are [Victorian](http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~infocom/scndempr/bedbreak/west/Oreg07.jpg) style homes. They’re often gaudy and pretentious, but that’s why I like them. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/30 "2017-09-04T23:01:22Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > For commercial buildings I like Art Deco, at least as a general style. I’d love to see the [Bradbury Building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_Building) someday, which Wikipedia describes as Italian Renaissance Revival. And there a [building](http://131dartmouthstreet.com/) in Boston I’ve always liked, at least from the outside, but I’m not sure what style to describe it as. > > For homes I like Victorian, but I’d want to design my own without all the limitations of an old house; proper heating and cooling, large closets, a garage and workshop. > > I had a similar impression when I toured Fallingwater. It’s an absolutely stunning building, but I think I’d find it very hard to live there. I love Art Deco everything including buildings and planes. Miami still has a lot of gorgeous examples. Victorians can certainly be a problem to maintain but some of them are beautiful too. They tend to be Halloween houses - drafty, dark, spooky and generally sinister but they are also grand if they are well maintained. I would buy an Addams family house in a second if it came on the market and I know of a couple of them. I would insist that the ghosts come with it. I also like modern log cabin houses with high ceilings like ski lodges. There aren’t very many types of houses that I don’t think are pretty from Amsterdam to Arizona but Frank Llloyd Wright and I have some serious issues. That egomaniac, midget somehow convinced almost everyone that form was more important than function and his form wasn’t even very good. Couldn’t he have taken at least one class in structural engineering or at least hired someone that did? Flat roofs are a ridiculous concept as are bolted in furniture, low ceilings and poor use of space. I have been in plenty of the houses he designed and I always leave more pissed off than the last. There is no way any rational person would ever want to live in one of his failures. I don’t think Falling Water is a great house in the least. It is an engineering disaster that costs millions of dollars of repairs just to keep it from falling apart. It doesn’t blend with the environment at all. It is like a space ship did an emergency landing in a random place in Pennsylvania. There are countless, better and prettier houses immediately around me that people can actually live in and don’t present the constant threat of self-destruction. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/31 "2017-09-05T17:11:36Z")
For “serious” architecture, Art Deco, leaking over into [Streamline Moderne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streamline_Moderne). For “whimsical” architecture, [Googie/Populuxe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googie_architecture). I tend to think of those as a continuum, so I guess I’m saying I like Art Deco and most of its descendants, even those widely considered to be tacky. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/32 "2017-09-06T17:03:25Z")
I hate late 20th century Brutalism, but I like the early 20th century stuff, like Bruno Schulz’s terrifying _Volkerschlactdenkmal_ in Leipzig. Not to live in, though. [https://www.google.com/search?q=völkerschlachtdenkmal&rlz=1C9BKJA\_enUS620US620&hl=en-US&prmd=imnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju5POShJHWAhVM6CYKHeryDmoQ\_AUIESgB&biw=1024&bih=653#imgrc=h9yYXl\_ZOlh7AM:](https://www.google.com/search?q=v%C3%B6lkerschlachtdenkmal&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS620US620&hl=en-US&prmd=imnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju5POShJHWAhVM6CYKHeryDmoQ_AUIESgB&biw=1024&bih=653#imgrc=h9yYXl_ZOlh7AM:) I like Beaux Arts style, like the Grand Palais in Paris, and lots of stuff in Vienna. [https://www.google.com/search?q=paris+grand+palais&rlz=1C9BKJA\_enUS620US620&hl=en-US&prmd=minv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPnu7qhJHWAhWKSyYKHZCjCjsQ\_AUIEigC&biw=1024&bih=653#imgrc=3IykcqMe2qMAQM:](https://www.google.com/search?q=paris+grand+palais&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS620US620&hl=en-US&prmd=minv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPnu7qhJHWAhWKSyYKHZCjCjsQ_AUIEigC&biw=1024&bih=653#imgrc=3IykcqMe2qMAQM:) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/33 "2017-09-06T17:04:34Z")
Give me big scary statues and Sphinxes and I’m happy. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/34 "2017-09-06T18:21:55Z")
I’m a big fan of Craftsman style, as exemplified by Green & Green. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/35 "2017-09-06T20:37:54Z")
Grand Cathedral … like where the Pope lives … ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2017, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/36 "2017-09-06T21:51:39Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > I’m a big fan of Craftsman style, as exemplified by Green & Green. I don’t know much about the subject but I like anything that comes up when you google Craftsman or Arts and Crafts. that brutal style looks awful. in general, I don’t like modern. is Hobbit a style? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/37 "2017-09-07T00:40:23Z")
Federal inside and out for the most part with maybe a little art deco here and there. One of our PA court houses combined the two and it always had a certain appeal to me. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/38 "2017-09-07T00:48:25Z")
[National Park Service Rustic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Park_Service_rustic) ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/39 "2017-09-07T01:41:44Z")
Caribbean Victorian, traditional Spanish, traditional Moroccan, Scandinavian modern. Least favorite? Brutalism and Gothic. In that order. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2017, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423/40 "2017-09-07T18:59:35Z")
Victorian (stick style and Queen Anne). Craftsman. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-architecture-styles/795423.md?page=3)