K
Keystone: (noun) – Key-shaped stone at the top of the arch used to open a secluded vault in Egypt containing the secret to all Architectural success. The vault may be empty, and booby trapped.
L
Light: (noun) – The illumination at the end of the tunnel which has been turned off due to lack of financing.
Linear: (noun) – The shortest distance between your ideals and your client’s pocketbook.
Lintel: (noun) – A bean-soup used to span window openings.
Loggia: (noun) – A gallery or corridor on the façade of a building, open to interpretation on one side.
{ more definitions after the break }
M
Mansard roof: (noun) – Steeply sloped roofs that screen HVAC equipment on fast food restaurants in France.
Materials: (noun) – Natural or manufactured elements used to populate specifications.
Members: (noun) – Only.
Mid-Century Modern: (noun) – The days before modernism was considered to be too expensive.
Mixed-use - Building type where-in the residents complain about the smells and noise from the restaurant and the restaurant patrons look up at the ceiling whenever the residents flush their toilet.
Modification: (noun) – Placing a butterfly chair next to a Charles Eames foot stool in a 1950s home.
Modulor: (noun) -The manufactured home that Le Corbusier lived in.
Molding: (noun) – Decorative trim work used to conceal the imperfections in one’s architectural ideals.
Mullion: (noun) – Time spent thinking about the window placement.
Muntin: (noun) – Window panes divided by sheep.
N
Nave: (noun) – The negative end of a sanctuary.
Neo-Classical: (noun) – New, yet oddly the same as the old, but, with more styrofoam.
New Urbanism: (noun) – Much like Classical Architecture, with more paperwork and guilt.
Newel post: (noun) – The stair element that reminds Jimmy Stewart that he does, in fact, have a wonderful life.
Niche: (noun) – Specialized area of concentration used to limit choices and relevance.
Node: (noun) – The state an Architectural concept exists in after it has been rejected by the client.
O
Oculus: (noun) – The hole in your ideal roof form.
Occupancy: (noun) – Group of strangers residing within an architecturally significant contribution to the community. (Strangers to be removed prior to photography).
Ornament: (noun) – Vestiges of nostalgia festooning a pure form.
P
Parti: (noun) – Gathering of 3 or more design professionals under the influence of alcohol, wherein the “big idea” for the project is formed.
Pavilion: (noun) – Architecturally significant structures devoid of context, program, and budget.
Pedestal: (noun) – Position preferred by most Architects.
Pedestrian oriented: (noun) - Buildings that allow people to approach on foot, while parking somewhere in the rear.
Pediment: (noun) – The slow, but steady build-up of an Architects resolve over time.
Permit: (noun) – The act of building officials allowing a structure to exist.
Piano nobile: (noun) – The principle floor marked by larger openings in the piano.
Piers: (noun) – Those equal to the Architect who help hold our values safely above the incoming waves of an economic tsunami.
Pilaster: (noun) – Semi-attached columns concealing HVAC dust work.
Placemaking - The circular drive or “round-about” near the entrance to a retail / lifestyle center.
Plane: (verb) – To remove all detail or ornament from a design.
Platonic: (noun) – Buildings that only want to be friends.
Porte-cochère: (noun) – The covering at the entry of a structure, used to keep the rain off of the elderly as they remove their belongings from the trunk of their car, in France.
Portico: (noun) – The opening between you and the fortified wine within.
Post-Modern: (noun) – When everything began to get away from us, somehow…things just weren’t the same. Hey, is that a Michael Graves gravy boat? cool…, I love Target.
Preservation - Allocating additional funding, by means of government grants and tax increment financing to leverage nostalgia and guilt to save non-functional buildings that bitter people value.
Proportion: (noun) – The professional amount.
Public Realm - Anything outside of your house, except for Walmart.
Q
Quoin: (noun) – Quash
R
Radial: (noun) – Emanating from the center, like a tire.
Relief: (noun) – A façade broken up by the few moments of the day spent not thinking of the Architecture.
Repetition: (noun) – Repetition.
Residential: (noun) – American dreams bundled into mortgage-backed securities and leveraged to blame the middle-class for buying more than they can afford.
Restoration: (noun) – The discount clothing store that moves into the space formally occupied by the designer clothing store
Return: (noun) – The negative balance after construction, often reimbursed by the Architect by way of a change order.
Reveals: (noun) – ¾” glimpses into an Architect’s soul.
Ridge: (noun) – The crest of the nose under the black-rimmed circular glasses.
Roof: (noun) – The barrier between the elements and the lawsuit.
Rowhouse: (noun) – Narrow urban residences facing a flooded street to be approached by boat.
Rustication: (noun) – The use of wide-plank flooring and wool by hipsters and/or Nick Nolte.
S
Sash: (noun) – The portion of the window draped across the left shoulder of the building.
Scale: (noun) – The hard segmental reptilian skin covering most architectural egos.
Section: (noun) – 2-dimensional detail indecipherable by clients and ignored by contractors.
Sense of Place: (noun) – - That funny feeling of being watched by a 16 year old holding a skateboard and an energy drink.
Served and Servant Spaces: (noun) – A rectangular house in which Louis Kahn resides on the 2nd floor and his maid isn’t allowed to leave the 1st floor; also, the working title to a Robert Altman film.
Shaft: (noun) – The vertical opening within a structure capable of transporting a 5000lb, 400 ft/sec bad mutha — shut your mouth.
Sill: (noun) – y
Siteplan: (noun) – The first drawing the client sees that shows how little parking is available.
Soffit: (noun) – The exposed underbelly of the roof.
Spatial: (adj) – The smartest intern.
Stile and rail: (noun) – 1960s country duo popular for their top-20 hit “The 4-panel door to my heart”
Stoa: (noun) – Placing all Roman items below deck.
Streetscape - Popular city sponsored improvement projects involving very small trees and 19th century reproduction lighting.
Stoop: (noun) – The part of the building near the front door that bends to pick up occupants.
Stretcher: (noun) – Tool used to lengthen boards that were inadvertently cut too short for the stairway.
Stucco: (noun) – The sticky plaster-like residue used between the masonry facades due to value engineering.
Symmetry: (noun) – The place where the bodies of dead Architects are interred.
T
T-square: (noun) – Unsuccessful Architect and 1990s rapper.
Temple: (noun) – The edges of an Architects brow which are rubbed as they contemplate their fate in this world.
Transit Oriented Development: (noun) - Suburbs within a 10-mile radius of a future planned rail corridor (trains to be powered by rainbows and biofuel).
Transom: (noun) – Crossing the door above the head.
Triglyph: (noun) – Meaningless 3-letter acronyms used for architectural firm names (i.e. S.O.M. or H.O.K. or B.I.G. or F.L.W. or M.V.R.D.V)
Tuck-pointing: (noun) – The tradition of extending a finger towards the mason who pushes the ends of the bricks into his pants.
Turrets: (noun) – Uncontrollable Architectural swearing over the decorative tops of towers.
U
Urban design: (noun) – - Getting less for more, while waiting longer for approvals.
V
Vault: (noun) – The place where the profit on the job is rumored to be held. (Ref: Keystone for access)
Vernacular: (noun) – dirty.
Volute: (noun) – The act of placing ones right hand to ones forehead when passing the top of an ionic column.
Vomitorium: (noun) – The narrow hallway leading out of the Velvet Underground’s flat in Soho.
W
Wainscot: (noun) – The pants of the dining room walls.
Wall: (noun) – Autocad command shortcut which applies a W to all.
Window: (noun) – The part of the glazing that does not go from floor to ceiling; probably in the bathroom, or the closet.
Z
Zinc: (noun) – Mythical metal cladding only specified as an add alternate.
Zoning: (noun) – - The act of removing the barriers to creative and thoughtful urban design, by only allowing development patterns covered in the seminars the local planners attended during a conference 5 years ago.
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Cheers via { coffee with an architect }
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photos are from FlickrDelusions’ photostream on Flickr (used under creative commons license).