Why did the colonial Americans give over a significant part of their homes to a grand staircase? Why did the Victorians drape their buildings ornate decoration? And why did American buildings grow so tall in the last decades of the 19th century. This book explores the history of American architecture from prehistoric times to the present, explaining why characteristic architectural forms arose at particular times and in particular places.

Incorporating more than 3,000 illustrations, Kornwolf's work conveys the full range of the colonial encounter with the continent's geography, from the high forms of architecture through formal landscape design and town planning. From these pages emerge the fine arts of environmental design, an understanding of the political and economic events that helped to determine settlement in North America, an appreciation of the various architectural and landscape forms that the settlers created, and an awareness of the diversity of the continent's geography and its peoples. Considering the humblest buildings along with the mansions of the wealthy and powerful, public buildings, forts, and churches, Kornwolf captures the true dynamism and diversity of colonial communities - their rivalries and frictions, their outlooks and attitudes - as they extended their hold on the land.

Introduction. Reshaping the study of early American architecture -- The origins of early American architecture. Early American architecture : a transatlantic perspective -- Adaptation and innovation : archaeological and architectural -- Perspectives on the seventeenth-century Chesapeake -- The English origins of the Jamestown rowhouses -- The design and building process. "An elegant and commodious building" : William Buckland and the design of the Prince William County Courthouse -- The dynamics of architectural design in eighteenth-century Charleston and the low country -- Regional building patterns : ecclesiastical architecture. Anglican church design in the Chesapeake : English inheritances and regional interpretations -- Christ Church, Savannah : loopholes in metropolitan design on the frontier -- "Building is a heavy burden" : the legacy of eighteenth-century church building in the Middle Atlantic colonies -- God is in the details : the transformation of ecclesiastical architecture in early-nineteenth-century America -- Williamsburg. Ornaments of civic aspiration : the public buildings of Williamsburg -- Beaux-arts ideals and colonial reality : the reconstruction of Williamsburg's capitol, 1928-1934 -- The changing perceptions of the restoration of colonial Williamsburg

''Discusses the individual and collective achievement of the three American architects.''--

Colonial architecture is an architectural style from a mother country that has been incorporated into the buildings of settlements or colonies in distant locations.--Amazon.com.