Types

boarding schools (institutions)

Educational institutions at the elementary-secondary level in which students are in residence while enrolled in an instructional program.

boardinghouses

Houses in which people receive lodging and meals for a fixed fee, typically for an extended period of time rather than simply overnight. Boarding houses are often family homes in which the family's spare bedrooms are used for boarders and the paying guests sit at the family table to take meals.

boardrooms

Rooms that are designated for meetings of a board and usually contain a large conference table.

boards of trade

Organizations that regulate, promote, supervise, or protect commercial or business enterprises.

boardwalks

Walkways constructed from boards or planks, usually located along shores, especially beaches. In extended use it may refer to any pedestrian walkway along beach frontage meant for recreational strolling; may be accompanied by small businesses.

boat clubs

Water recreation complexes including clubhouse, marina, and associated boating facilities.

boat launching ramps

Ramps extending from the shore or bank to the water, for the purpose of allowing boats to be put in a body of water.

boatbuilding

No description is available for this term.

boathouses

Buildings usually built partly in the water for housing or storing boats.

boats

No description is available for this term.

bocce courts

No description is available for this term.

bogs

Designates waterlogged spongy ground with a characteristic plantlife, such as sphagnum mosses, and in which vegetation is decaying, ultimately producing highly acidic peat. Distinct from "fens," in which the water remains alkaline.

boiler houses

Buildings containing boiler units, which supply hot water or steam usually to associated industrial buildings.

boiler rooms

Spaces provided for the boilers used for heating, ventilation, or power generation.

bolection moldings

Moldings or groups of moldings used to cover the joint between two surfaces on different levels and projecting beyond the surface of both.

bollards

Refers to wooden or metal posts on a ship, whale-boat, quay, or pier, used for securing ropes. Bollards made of concrete may be used to prevent passage by automobiles into pedestrian spaces. For indicators sited in roadways that may indicate wayfinding or obstructions, use "traffic bollards."

bomb shelters

Structures or chambers, often underground, that are reinforced against bombing and typically stocked with food and living essentials, intended to be used by civilians or military personnel in case of enemy bomb attack.

bonded warehouses

Use both for warehouses in which goods are stored until customs duties or taxes have been paid or for warehouses in which goods stored are insured against loss or damage.

bookstores

Places of business where books are the primary items sold.

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.

cabañas (recreational)

Small cabins, simple enclosures, or tentlike structures erected at beaches or swimming pools as bathhouses.

cabarets (buildings)

Cafélike facilities often with a dance floor or small stage and featuring entertainment generally of an improvisational, satirical, or topical nature.

cabinets (rooms)

Relatively small, private rooms, often adjacent to bedrooms in great houses, serving as sitting rooms, rooms for dressing, study, devotion, or private meetings, and, during certain periods, often containing collections of curiosities and art objects.

cabins (houses)

Small dwellings characteristic of the frontier or other rustic area, especially when built by non-professionals from available logs or stones.

cable-stayed bridges

Bridges having a deck that is directly supported from towers or pylons by straight cables without vertical suspenders. Construction of cable-stayed bridges usually follows the cantilever method. After the tower is built, one cable and a section of the deck are constructed in each direction. Each section of the deck is pre-stressed before continuing. The process is repeated until the deck sections meet in the middle, where they are connected. The ends are anchored at the abutments.

cafés (restaurants)

Designates informal eating facilities with plated table service, a limited food-oriented menu generally of simply prepared items and coffee, and a social atmosphere emphasizing bustle and noise.

cafeterias (eating and drinking spaces)

Self-service establishments providing prepared food and drinks from long counters for on-premise or immediate consumption.

cages (enclosures)

Boxlike enclosures having openwork of bars, wires, or the like used to confine or protect its occupant, or to admit light or ventilation. Typically reserved for large or small enclosures of this type used for animals, or for freestanding barred enclosures for humans. For such rooms in prisons, particularly if the room is enclosed within walls and having only a limited area of bars, prefer "prison cells."

cairns

Ancient landmarks, monuments, memorials, or burial places covered with stones or a large mound of earth, specific to Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, For similar burial mounds specific to England, use "barrows." For piles of earth, generally, use "mounds"; for piles of earth used specifically over tombs, use "burial mounds."

camp sites (recreation spaces)

Individual locations, within organized campgrounds or as isolated sites, set aside or otherwise marked for camping.

campaniles

Lofty detached bell towers, particularly such towers found adjacent to certain Italian churches.

campgrounds

Areas comprised of individual camp sites and providing facilities and conveniences for camping.

camping trailers

Automobile-drawn, wheeled recreational vehicles providing a temporary dwelling or shelter while camping outdoors, often incorporating a folding shelter of canvas or other fabric. Distinguished from "motor homes," which are larger.

camps (recreation areas)

Temporary short-term habitation complexes, with permanent recreational facilities and often offering a structured program of activities. Temporary short-term habitation complexes, with permanent recreational facilities and often offering a structured program of activities.

camps (temporary settlements)

Use primarily in anthropological and archaeological contexts for small, scattered, seasonal or temporary settlements, usually places of shelter or lodging, often associated with specific activities, and generally having no permanent architecture.

campuses

Grounds of colleges or universities, including the open space between or around the buildings. The term is also used to refer to the grounds of other building complexes with layouts similar to colleges.

canals (waterways)

Artificial navigable waterways.

canchas

Denotes three-walled courts marked for playing jai alai.

canneries

Factories where food, especially meat and fruit, are canned.

cantilever bridges

Bridges built using cantilevers, which are structures that project horizontally into space and are supported on only one end. In a typical cantilever bridge, two cantilever arms are joined in the center by a light suspended span. The balancing of forces of tension, or pulling, and the forces of compression, or squeezing, create a strong bridge; thus cantilever construction is employed for large spans in certain sites, especially for heavy loads.

cantilevers

Beams or other lements that project horizontally or nearly horizontally into space, and are fixed at one end and carry a load distributed along the length or at the other, such as a diving board. The upper half of the thickness of such a beam is subjected to tensile stress, tending to elongate the fibres, the lower half to compressive stress, tending to crush them. Beams or other lements that project horizontally or nearly horizontally into space, and are fixed at one end and carry a load distributed along the length or at the other, such as a diving board. The upper half of the thickness of such a beam is subjected to tensile stress, tending to elongate the fibres, the lower half to compressive stress, tending to crush them.