Types

boomtowns

Towns that have grown very rapidly as a result of sudden prosperity.

booths

Small enclosures or stands, permanent or temporary, and freestanding or not, used for selling goods or to afford privacy to their occupants.

border inspection stations

Built works erected at or near border crossings where persons or vehicles are halted for examination and clearance by government officials.

borders (boundaries)

Boundary lines that separate one country from another.

botanical gardens

Primarily outdoor areas where a variety of plants are grown and displayed for scientific, educational, or artistic purposes.

bottling plants

Facilities where drinking water is treated and sealed in bottles.

boulevards

Wide city streets characterized by rows of trees or other plantings decoratively laid out along the sides or in a median strip.

boundary stones

Stones marking a boundary.

boundary walls

Walls enclosing an area or defining a boundary.

boutiques

Small, upscale specialty shops generally specializing in fashionable clothing or accessories or a special collection of other merchandise; may also be used for individual departments within larger stores if featuring a similar line of goods.

bow roof houses

No description is available for this term.

bowling alley sports

Bowling sports played using a bowling alley.

bowling alleys

Designates buildings housing wooden lanes, equipped with facilities for setting bowling pins and returning balls to the user, for the indoor sport of bowling.

bowling greens

Designates closely mown, level pieces of ground reserved for the playing of lawn bowls.

box offices

Rooms or spaces in theaters where tickets are reserved, sold, and distributed.

box stalls

In barns or stables, individual compartments in which an animal may move about freely.

boxes (audience spaces)

An enclosed seating area within a theater that is either permanently or temporarily reserved for small groups of persons.

brackets (structural elements)

Refers to the elements, usually of generally triangular shape, that project from a wall, pier, or other structure and which serve to support vertical loads or strengthen an angle by transferring the load against the face of the structure from which they project; sometimes more decorative than functional.

branch banks

Buildings that house banks in a system other than the main or central bank.

branch libraries (buildings)

Buildings or spaces housing book collections in a system other than the main or central library.

breakwaters

Raised structures, usually located offshore, built to protect an area from waves.

breezeways

Roofed passages connecting two parts of a house or a house and garage; common after 1930. Distinct from "dogtrots," which occur in folk architecture and log houses.

breweries

Buildings or complexes of buildings where beer, and often other malt beverages, are brewed, generally involving mechanized processes.

brick kilns

Furnaces devised for burning bricks. Originally fueled by wood, more recent designs employ forced air systems, automatic temperature control, and may be fueled by coal or other substances.

brickworks (factories)

Factories where bricks are made.

bridge approaches

Embankments, trestles, or other structures that provide access at either end of a bridge.

bridges (built works)

Structures spanning and providing passage over waterways, topographic depressions, transportation routes, or similar circulation barriers.

bridle paths

Paths cleared and compacted, reserved for riding horses and barred to vehicles.

brise-soleils

Fixed or movable devices, such as louvers, designed to block the direct entrance of sun rays into buildings.

broach spires

Octagonal spires rising from a square tower without an intervening parapet, the four angles of the tower being covered by corner segments of a pyramid seeming to penetrate the tower.

broadcasting stations

Telecommunications buildings containing studios, production and technical offices, equipment spaces, and control facilities for sending and receiving microwave transmissions; for rooms and spaces designed for the origination or recording of radio or television programs, use "broadcasting studios."

broadcasting studios

Rooms and spaces designed for the origination or recording of radio or television programs; for telecommunications buildings containing facilities for sending and receiving microwave transmissions, use "broadcasting stations."

brooder houses

Heated structures used for raising young fowl, traditionally wood-framed, wood-floored, movable structures heated by electric or oil-fired stoves and built on skids. The chicks are housed from hatching until they are about six weeks old, when they no longer need heat. Commercial brooder houses may be very large, having several brooder units, underfloor heat or heat lamps, fan ventilation, automatic waterers and feeders, and large doors through which tractors and litter-removing equipment can pass.

brooks

Small streams, generally smaller than creeks.

brothels

Buildings designed or maintained as houses of prostitution.

brownfield sites

Sites considered for development that already have some form of development on them or that are derelict and thus would require clearance before redevelopment could take place.

brownstones (houses)

Dwellings, often row houses, faced with brownstone.

builder-designed houses

Houses designed by the owner/builder, rather than by a professional architect.

building sites

Places where one or more buildings are located, formerly were located, are under construction, or will be constructed.

buildings (structures)

Structures, generally enclosed, that are used or intended to be used for sheltering an activity or occupancy.

bulkheads

Walls used to resist pressure caused by rock or water, such as to separate land and water areas.

bungalows

Historically, refers to modest one-story houses, originally with thatched roofs, derived from examples in India; by extension, in British contexts, use for detached one-story houses; in American contexts use more specifically for one- to one-and-a-half-story houses generally characterized by low-pitched gable or hipped roofs, usually with widely projecting, often bracketed eaves, dormers, and conspicuous front porches; popular in the United States from the late 19th to the early 20th century.

bunkers

Fortification chambers mostly below ground level built of reinforced concrete or similar material and usually provided with embrasures; also, dugouts that are reinforced (as with logs or bags of sand) and usually have firing slits.

bunkhouses

Rough buildings often with bunk beds, used for sleeping quarters, as for ranch hands, migratory workers, and campers.

burial mounds

Piles of earth erected over grave sites; for piles of stones built over grave sites, use "cairns"; for piles of earth used generally and not over burials, use "mounds."

buried settlements

Settlements of any size that have been buried due to volcanic eruption, landslide, accumulation of sediment, etc.

Burr arch trusses

Trusses, patented in the early 19th century by Theodore Burr, combining a wood arch with a series of metal king-post trusses.

bus shelters

Minimal structures providing weather protection for patrons at bus stops; for more substantial buildings along bus routes, usually with sales and service facilities, use "bus stations."

bus stations

Use only for intermediate stops along bus routes, usually containing sales and service facilities; use "bus shelters" for structures at bus stops affording weather protection but having no sales or service facilities; use "bus terminals" only to refer to buildings or other structures located at bus route endpoints.

bus terminals

Use only to refer to buildings or other structures placed at the endpoints of bus routes; use "bus stations" only for intermediate stops along bus routes; use "bus shelters" for structures at bus stops affording weather protection but having no sales or service facilities.

bush (wilderness)

Large, uncleared areas of plant growth or thick vegetation.

business (commercial function)

Broad area of commercial or mercantile activity involving the exchange of commodities, services, or financial resources.

business colleges (buildings)

Buildings that house schools for training students in the clerical aspects of business and commerce, such as typing and bookkeeping; for buildings containing schools devoted to the professional study of the aspects of commercial enterprise, use "business schools (buildings)."

business districts

Central areas or other commercial areas of a town or city, typically areas that are zoned to allow the operation of businesses.

business schools (buildings)

Buildings that house schools devoted to the professional study of the organization and management of commercial enterprises, usually at the baccalaureate level and above. For buildings that house schools devoted to training students in the clerical aspects of business and commerce, use "business colleges (buildings)."

business schools (institutions)

Educational institutions devoted to the professional study of the organization and management of commercial enterprises, usually at the baccalaureate level and above. For buildings that house schools devoted to training students in the clerical aspects of business and commerce, use "business colleges."

butcher shops

Shops which sell meat, poultry and sometimes fish.

butterfly roofs

No description is available for this term.

buttes

Erosional landforms that are carved from flat-lying sediment or rocks having resistant top layers and characterized as conspicuous, isolated flat-topped hills with relatively steep sides; smaller in extent than mesas.

buttresses

Pierlike masonry elements built to strengthen or support walls or resist the lateral thrust of vaults.