Shingle Styles

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While Newport, Rhode Island, may not have been the birthplace of shingle style, it certainly became--somewhere around the 1860s--a stronghold for an approach that would become popular in American architecture. Established as a major shipping port in the mid-18th century, Newport went on to become a fashionable destination for the wealthy and the ambitious who took a liking to enormous houses (which they referred to as "cottages") which were built along the eastern shore of Aquidneck Island. Shingle Styles begins its case-by-case study of various American structures by focusing on a lasting monument in Rhode Island, the William Watts Sherman house, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. Built in the 1870s, the Sherman house set the standard for many of the unifying themes of shingle style: long horizontal lines created by extended roof overhangs, rows of aligned windows, and a cantilevered upper gable. The decisive change in the Sherman house, however, and the strongest element of this new architectural style, was the use of wooden shingles for an exterior wall covering rather than red clay tiles or stone. As author Leland M. Roth points out, this simple change "opened up possibilities for variations in texture and surface, with the shingles cut and nailed in different patterns ... especially in the upper gables." Roth goes on to detail a total of 30 structures, including homes, clubs and lodges, churches, farms and barns, and a hotel. The story of shingle style is also told through more than 200 illustrations and photographs, mostly in color. Along the way we learn about Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois; James and Merritt Reid's Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California; William Ralph Emerson's Felsted in Deer Isle, Main; and Greene & Greene's Gamble House in Pasadena, California. As an architectural characteristic, shingle style has its limitations. How much can be said, after all, about buildings which are unified only in their appearance of being covered entirely in wooden shingles? Roth helps to push appreciation to the next level, however, showing how the influences of craftsman, bungalow, prairie school, and postmodern touches have helped to enliven the style. --John Russell

Customer Reviews:

Great Book - Well worth the read.......2002-04-22

The book "SHINGLE STYLES Innovation and Tradition in American Architecture 1874 to 1982" is a truely exquisite book. The shingle style architecture is one of the last american architectural styles, and should be deeply cherished. The book has beautiful photographs by Bret Morgan and flowing text by Leland M. Roth. The book brings you through time, starting in the gilded age with lavish country homes, and ending in recent 1982, again displaying a lavish country home, stating the continuation of the shingle style. While reading the book you tend to have vicarious dreams of living in the later 1800s, going to the country home with the faimly and walking along the beach or senic country path, with your shingle villa in the background. The book makes a fine contribution to any library, and in my library it is prominately positioned in reach of all that wish to indulge in the enjoyment of the shingle style of architecture. I strongly recomend this book, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Delectable.......2000-11-02

A truly delectable book! After chewing it over thoroughly from cover to cover, I've been dreaming of shady porches, snug fireplaces, the smell of old houses in the rain. Bret Morgan is a wonderful photographer; his pictures evoke all of this -- I ate them up!

"...a treasure trove...".......2000-04-30

"Shingle Styles" is a treasure trove of architectural images and ideas. We are planning a new house inspired by the Shingle Style and this book has been most helpful in talking to our architect and contractor. The more recent houses are particularly helpful in thinking about adapting a historic style to our contemporary needs.

Sublime photos, grounding text.......2000-04-22

This is a wonderful book. The photos are sublime--going well beyond mere structural illustration and explanation to capture the spirit of the original design. The text gives grounding information about the evolution and permutations of what has come to be called Shingle Style and examines 30 structures, both familiar and unfamiliar. Roth recounts not only the training and shaping influences of the architects who designed these, but also provides such information as the circumstances surrounding the original project, a bit of social history, or the preservation efforts of present-day heirs. The presentation is thorough without being overwhelming or deadly, dryly academic. Morgan's wonderfully poetic photos take a similar approach: conveying not only the architecture of the whole, but also revealing the telling detail. I liked the inclusion of modern-day exemplars of this American style.

A great companion volume to Scully's "The Shingle Style".......2000-04-19

"Shingle Styles" makes a great companion volume to Vincent Scully's "The Shingle Style". The lack of plans here didn't bother me because Scully's book has so many. Architects like Stanford White conceived of these buildings in 3D and presented them in 3D sketches and vignettes, and "Shingle Styles" takes a similar pictorial approach. Almost like the old sketches, the color photographs show the 3D reality of the buildings, and the play of natural light across their textured surfaces. "Shingle Styles" goes beyond Scully's book to include great examples across the U.S., and also some examples of modern houses inspired by the Shingle Style. I especially enjoyed learning of the 1982 recreation of "Kragsyde", one of the long-lost ultimate Shingle Style houses.

Average customer rating:

Disappointing
Nothing that can be found in books with better photos

Shingle Style Homes: Past and Present
E. Ashley Rooney
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Shingle Style Today: Or The Historian's Revenge

ASIN: 076432554X

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2007-08-21

I was disappointed by this book. When I saw the announcement for the book, I was excited because there is a limited number of books on Shingle Style houses.

However, this book does not measure up. As mentionned above, the pictures are of poor quality. Some are blurry and others are overexposed. I expected better production quality for a $40 book.

The organization of the book is odd. It highlights a few older homes that are very interesting. These homes are interspersed with pictures of new homes of uneven architectural interest. The selection of homes included in the book could have benefitted from weeding.

Nothing that can be found in books with better photos.......2007-05-08

Like my title says, there isn't really anything new here. The "Present" section of the book is a far cry from any thing of the Shingle Style. Many of the photos can be found in other books on the same topic. The worst part of the book is the photos. Easily half of them are either blurry, poorly scanned, or over/under exposed. The photos are also cluttered with very badly written captions. With books of this type, the photos are the most important thing and this book falls short.

The Shingle Style and the Stick Style: Architectural Theory and Design from Richardson to the Origins of Wright (Yale Publications in the History of Art)

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A Skin of Shingles

The Shingle Style and the Stick Style: Architectural Theory and Design from Richardson to the Origins of Wright (Yale Publications in the History of Art)
Vincent Scully
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Shingle Style Today: Or The Historian's Revenge
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American Country Houses of the Gilded Age (Sheldon's "Artistic Country-Seats")

ASIN: 0300015194

Customer Reviews:

A Skin of Shingles.......2000-09-03

An historical treasure, this book, The Shingle and the Stick Style: form Richardson to the Orgins of Wright, by Vincent Scully is a chest of Architectual masterpieces. Detailed descriptions, interior and exterior photos, and floor plans make this book a wealth of knowledge for anyone interested in Architecture. The book is laid out as most contempory Architecture books. It describes the perticular building, then has the number that corralates to the photo. There are so many historical photographs in this book, and it is all well explained. It takes you step though step from the beginning of the stick stlye to the evoloution to the shingle to the metamorphis of Wright. Ths book is so detailed it even has the architectual sketches of many houses build in Manchester-by-the-Sea at Cape Ann, Mass. For the price this book is a definate buy!

Average customer rating:

architecture as grown-up play
Absurd and Feeble Architecture
Serious students only

Turner Brooks: Work
Ross Anderson , Kent Bloomer , Turner Brooks , and Jonathan Schell
Manufacturer: Princeton Architectural Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Architect Turner Brooks has quietly built a practice in rural New England that is comprised primarily of residential projects. By combining vernacular elements and traditional materials with his unique view of the relationship of buildings to the landscape, he has created a body of work that contains some of the most interesting small-scale single-family houses being built today. "I see my buildings as compact bodies-taut, stretched, swelling-objects with a strong sense of direction alit, isolated on the landscape which they inhabit easily, but from which they are read as distinctly separate. They are often built on the scruffy abandoned edges of this great agricultural landscape-they hover slightly and are 'placed' on the landscape without any presumptions or ambitions of transforming it. They are simply there, containers that outside their own tight wrappers, assume no accommodation to or from their surroundings."

The houses themselves crouching animal-like in their surroundings form a sort of architectural bestiary. Among the projects featured in Turner Brooks: Work are built works: McLane House, Starksboro, Vermont; Peek House, Monkton, Vermont; Gates Center, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine; Lombard/Miller House, Westby, Wisconsin; and unbuilt projects: Lobsterman houses, and Provincetown Eugene O'Neill Theater, Massachusetts. Heavily illustrated in color and black-and-white, this monograph brings to light the work of one of the most interesting American architects working today.

Customer Reviews:

architecture as grown-up play.......2007-04-01

This book presents drawings and photographs of models and completed buildings--mostly houses set in the country. To this extent, the book does what a survey of an architect's work is expected to do, and the designs are pleasing, often whimsical (some of the houses, viewed a little vaguely, resemble creatures, others boats). The images make one curious to know more of what led to these designs--and the remainder of the book helps to answer that question.
Turner Brooks' charcoal drawings of dim, dynamic scenes begin to explain the feelings that may have given rise to these designs. (I say "feelings," because it is these, and not "thoughts" that seem to matter to Mr. Brooks' work.) Some of his designs are reminiscent of Virgina Lee Burton's children's books--a source that he cites with affection. Others, especially when presented in miniature (many bright-colored models arrayed in tall grass, or his larger wooden pyramid photographed as it travelled through the streets of Rome) look like toys.
The effect of combining these glimpses into Mr. Brooks' backstage life with the images of his buildings is to show that he has been able to make his work and his play, his adult vocation and his childhood's preoccupations, an integrated whole. I wish we all could do as much.

Absurd and Feeble Architecture.......2003-02-22

I have never seen such a sorry excuse for architecture in my life. Buy this book if you need a good laugh. Reading the text coupled with the powerfully ludicrous images of Mr. Brook's silly architecture is analogous to watching a poorly scripted B-Movie. There are much better ways to spend your hard earned architectural salary!

Serious students only.......2000-04-21

This is not your coffee table book of the current architectural fashion. If you are interested in the idiosyncratic efforts of an intelligent practitioner working in an out-of-the-way corner of the country, I heartily recommend this book. As far as his style, it is "odd" much like Jersey Devil (Steve Badanes), but more educated and much more layered, both referentially and visually. Turner Brooks has had a modest amount of publicity, starting I think with Vincent Scully's "The Shingle Style Today" (subtitled "the historian's revenge," and a Record Houses award. The essays are better than the usual drivel which accompanies a monograph, and some of the photos are only OK, but the body of work points out that great work is possible even with projects of minimal scope. We should all do as well, or hope to.

The Shingle Style Today: Or The Historian's Revenge

Average customer rating:

Reads Better Than It Looks

The Shingle Style Today: Or The Historian's Revenge
Vincent Scully
Manufacturer: George Braziller
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Criticism | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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Hamptons Havens: The Best of Hamptons Cottages and Gardens (Hamptons Cottages & Gardens)
Shingle Style Homes: Past and Present

ASIN: 0807607606

Book Description

Distinguished by long, sloping gables, horizontal lines, and a continuous shingle covering on the exterior, the Shingle Style's essential objective was the creation of expanding, flowing space. The Shingle Style embodied intellectual pluralism and cultural democracy—ideals fundamental to American belief and developed quickly and richly. After a period of reaction against the Shingle Style, it was revitalized, finding its first fully renewed expression in 1959 in a design for a beach house by Robert Venturi. Vincent Scully details this reemergence, revealing the complex and crucial role of influence in the shaping of this movement. 134 b/w illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Reads Better Than It Looks.......2000-04-13

I bought this book a couple of years ago because my husband and I have a recurring fantasy of building a shingle style house and this was one of the few books I could find on the topic at the time. At first, I was a little intimidated by the book because it looks very dry and scholarly. Once I got over my intimidation and actually started reading, I was pleasantly surprised to find that while it is indeed scholarly, it is extremely readable and even witty. Scully manages to weave together a fascinating range of influences and expressions of shingle styles, from Italian palazzos to very modern architecture. The only reason I don't give this book a higher rating is that I wish it had color pictures and more of them, but I am probably just being peevish. The truth is, when I bought the book, I really wanted a glossy picture book but none were available (this was before the 1999 publication of "Shingle Styles"). The book's small black and white photographs will not be satisfying to someone who wants to drool over rich photographs of this gorgeous architectural style, as I did. Nonetheless, the book itself will be quite satisfying to someone who wants to immerse themselves in the history and theory of this unique American style and who is willing to exert a little brain power to do it.

Shingle Style: 155 Home Plans from Classic Colonials to Breezy Bungalows

Average customer rating:

Not Actually Shingle Style & Not Really a Book
Not worth the money

Shingle Style: 155 Home Plans from Classic Colonials to Breezy Bungalows

Manufacturer: Home Planners
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Design & Construction | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

House Plans | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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The Shingle Style Today: Or The Historian's Revenge
The Shingle Style and the Stick Style: Architectural Theory and Design from Richardson to the Origins of Wright (Yale Publications in the History of Art)
The Houses of McKim, Mead & White
Hamptons Havens: The Best of Hamptons Cottages and Gardens (Hamptons Cottages & Gardens)
Shingle Style Homes: Past and Present

ASIN: 1881955850

Book Description

Consider the lowly shingle. Rarely has a single building material had such a metamorphosis in its architectural influence. Shingle Style presents 165 modern designs from 20 of todays finest home designers and architects. These professionals make the most of modern interior floorplanning: built-ins, storage areas and efficient traffic flow from room to room. Their exteriors, however, maintain the classic look and influences from the turn of the 19th Century.

Customer Reviews:

Not Actually Shingle Style & Not Really a Book.......2006-08-21

This "book" has the exact same format as the home plan magazines you can buy in the grocery store for $5: 4 designs in the front that have actually been built and decorated and then had 2 interior and 1 exterior photos taken, and then 151 other plans with only an exterior photo or pencil drawing and the floor plans. The only thing that makes this a "book" is a slightly thicker paper cover.

However, my primary concern is that the houses depicted in the book are not actually shingle style houses. Virginia and Lee McAlester in "A Field Guide to American Houses**", describe the shingle style thusly:
"Most Shingle houses were built between 1880 and 1900... The Shingle style ... was a uniquely American adaptation of other traditions. Its roots are threefold: (1) From the Queen Anne it borrowed wide porches, shingled surfaces and asymmetrical forms. (2) From the Colonial Revival it adapted gambrel roofs, rambling lean-to addtions, classical columns, and Paladian windows. (3) From the contemporaneous Richardsonian Romanesque it borrowed an emphasis on irregular sculpted shapes, Romanesque arches, and, in some examples, stone lower stories." p. 290

Only about 10 of these designs could remotely be classified as Shingle Style. [Pages 55, 61, 76, 137, and 142-147 for those interested. I think the exterior details of the house on p. 142 is the best example of a true shingle style.] The vast majority of these home plans are the standard country, colonial, and craftsman homes that you see time and time again in the home plan magazines. They have been redrawn with shingle siding instead of lap siding, thus allegedly making them "shingle style."

Finally, I was specifically looking for an urban shingle style house that I could build on a vacant city lot in Indianapolis. The standard city lots in Indianapolis are 40' wide by 110'-180' deep, leaving you with a maximum home width of 30'. There are only 3 plans in this book with widths of 30' or under. Then there are an additional 11 plans with widths between 30' and 40'. However most of those are found in the "coastal creations" section, and are apparantly designed for narrow waterfront lots. The vast majority of the plans are designed for suburban lots that are wide and shallow with garage entry on the front.

Thinking that I might possibly be able to salvage some of the money that I spent, I scoured this book for examples of shingle style exterior and interior trim and details. However, for the most part the exterior trim details are a mish mash of non-shingle styles, and of the four houses that show any interior details, they are all decidedly country.

In conclusion, take a look at this "book" if you are looking for a home to fit on a suburban lot that is CLAD in shingles. Stay away from this book if you want a true shingle style home.

** I strongly recommend "A Field Guide to American Houses", also sold on Amazon, as an excellent resource for those interested in traditional homes. You will learn the difference between Georgian, Adams, Early Classical Revival, and Greek Revival homes which are all classified simply as "Colonial" by house plan magazines and realtors. Similarly, it describes in detail and with accompanying illustration and photographic examples the differences between Victorian Second Empire, Stick, Queen Anne, Shingle, Richardson Romanesque, and Folk homes.

Not worth the money.......2001-08-17

Don't bother to order this book, It was of no use to me.

Architecture of the American Summer: The Flowering of the Shingle Style (Documents of American Architecture)

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Architecture of the American Summer: The Flowering of the Shingle Style (Documents of American Architecture)
Vincent Scully
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0847807827
Release Date: 1989-02-15

The Shingle Style: Architectural Theory and Design From Richardson to the Origins of Wright

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The Shingle Style: Architectural Theory and Design From Richardson to the Origins of Wright

Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HJ44GA

Cottage clarity: a Maine summer home shows Shingle style in a new light.(On Site) : An article from: Custom Home

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Cottage clarity: a Maine summer home shows Shingle style in a new light.(On Site) : An article from: Custom Home
Bruce D. Snider
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Elements of style: Siding and shingle designs : Stephen Fuller, Donald Gardner and other top American architects present over 200 homes plans featuring James Hardie siding products

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Elements of style: Siding and shingle designs : Stephen Fuller, Donald Gardner and other top American architects present over 200 homes plans featuring James Hardie siding products
Stephen S Fuller
Manufacturer: Home Planners
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Book Description

Soda glazing was, for many years, the neglected cousin of salt glazing. As pollution laws have become stricter, however, more potters have turned to soda and, to their delight, found not only the traditional orange peel surface but also a subtle palette of colors that have made them sit up and take notice.

In this book Ruthanne Tudball discusses the history of and techniques involved in soda glazing. She includes body and slip recipes, kiln designs, and firing methods specifically developed for soda glazing. She illustrates her text with the work of an international group of artists.

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SODA GLAZING: Ceramics Handbooks Ser.
Ruthanne Tudball
Manufacturer: Kangaroo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SUDINS

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