Federal Architecture Style Features

Andre Gennie

20 November 2024

1. Materials Used

The building materials used differ depending on the location. The Federal architecture houses in the urban north were mostly made of brick as fireproofing was desirable.

2. Federal Architecture Buildings’s Plans

The Federal style is centred on a side hall for narrow row houses or a centre hall floor plan. It is usually made on a straightforward square or rectangular plot that is two or three stories high.

3. Exteriors and Facades

American Federal architecture often carries plain surfaces with attenuated detail, typically isolated in panels, tablets, and friezes. The smooth and flat pilaster façades carried the ellipse and bald eagle.

4. Ornamentation and Detailings

Federal architecture style’s details are more delicate, slender, and finely drawn, created by fluted radiating lines. Often, they include urns, garlands, and swags.

5. Doors and Windows

More formal elements were introduced in the Federal style architecture such as the front door’s fanlight window, with flanking or elliptical sidelights, and more elaborate door surrounds & porticos.

6. Entrance

A small entry porch or elaborate moulding surrounds the doorway. Curvilinear lines, front stair rails, iron balconies, and even curved fronts are common.