Building With Style: Searching for Style

JLC • NEW ENGLAND EDITION • MARCH 1995 John Milnes Baker is an architect from Westchester County, N.Y. His new book, American House Styles: A Concise Guide (W.W. Norton and Co., NY, 1994, hardcover), presents an illustrated reference to American house styles, each described with a page or two of well-written history. As such, the book is a useful guide for the real world — the world filled with buyers, brokers, and designers who enjoy identifying houses as if they were birds. The book is an excellent complement to my “stylistic bible”: A Field Guide to American Houses, by Virginia and Lee McAlester (Alfred A. Knopf, NY, 1988, paperback). While the McAlesters’ book illustrates each style with many small