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Writing an Architectural Description This document describes the basic items that should be included in an architectural description of a building. The description should be brief, no longer than a single-spaced typed page. Describe the existing condition, not its original or early appearance. Move from the macro to the micro. Start with its size, architectural style, and its use. Then move on to such details as doors windows and ornamentation. Basic Outline In the heading give the address and Universal Tranverse Mercator Coordinates for the property. 1. How many stories, style, and current use? 2. What type of roof? 3. What is the building's relationship to its site (middle, side, back, on a hill, in a swale) to the street, to the adjacent buildings. Are there distinctive landscape features? 4. Are there outbuildings? 5. What is the building's shape, cladding material, roofing material, foundation material? Are there major differences between the front facade and other facades? 6. What are the window types, door and door surround, porches, and the locations of these elements on the facades? 7. Does the building have particularly distinctive elements or design details? 8. What is the condition of building materials and features? 9. Have any parts of the buildings experienced major changes from the original?
Residence The Morrill House (139 Middleton Drive, Charlotte, N.C.) U.T.M. Coordinates: 17 515967.2E 3895008.8N The Morrill House is located on the north side of Middleton Drive in Charlotte, N.C. The house has a rectangular shaped plan, is two stories tall, is three bays wide and two bays deep, and has a gable roof covered with asbestos shingle and has two gabled dormers. A end brick chimney without shoulders is on the east side of the house. The cladding material on the first floor is brick in stretcher bond, and on the second floor it is clapboard wood siding covered in vinyl siding. Typical of the Colonial Revival style in which the house is rendered, the Morrill House has symmetrical massing with 6/6 double hung sash on the front and side facades. Shudders are on either side of the windows. The most distinctive ornamentation is at the central front entrance. Fluted pilasters frame a six-paneled solid wood door with a broken pediment with urn and dentils above. The front of the Morrill House parallels the street. The front yard is largely treeless and is bordered by a brick wall. A brick walkway leads from the sidewalk to the front entrance, and another brick walkway leads to the cement driveway on the eastern edge of the property. The property does contain a gable-roof garage at the right rear of the property. An original screen porch on the right side of the house has been enclosed.
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