Châteauesque – 16th Century French Design in 19th Century USA

The Châteauesque style of architecture was brought into general use in the United States by Richard Morris Hunt during the 1880s and remained in vogue till the early 1900s. Typically, the style was used in the architectural design of residences of the affluent class and for certain public buildings. The term, however, is rarely used outside of the USA.

The Châteauesque style often employed decorative towers and spires (not always in proportion with one another) on fairly common buildings. The buildings were designed to project an uneven façade. The buildings featured hip roofs with two slopes on all sides with the lower slope steeper than the upper, as found in the structures built during the late Gothic and Italian Renaissance period (16th century). The style was originally used for the French chateaus during the 1400s in the Loire Valley in France.

The Châteauesque style also drew inspiration from the villas of the Crimean aristocracy – the buildings were painted yellow-orange and highlighted with strikingly different solid exterior angles of buildings, especially the ones formed by cornerstones.

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