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WEB REVIEW


Everything You Need to Know ‘About’ Architecture

A portal site is your educational resource for residential architectural styles and your pressing architectural questions.

Web Site: About Architecture
URL: http://architecture.about.com

REVIEWED BY CHRISTOPHER M. LEPORINI

What the Site Offers

About Architecture provides a variety of resources to help build your residential architecture IQ. You can familiarize yourself with housing styles and decorative features using its illustrated descriptions. Other features provide resources you can pass onto your clients about renovating historical homes, home repairs, and maintenance tasks.

About is a leading portal that provides comprehensive information on a variety of topics—all organized and presented by a professional guide who is an expert on the topic. The About network comprises hundreds of sites that are organized into 23 channels, covering more than 50,000 subjects. The About guides provide original content on their topics, as well as relevant links, how-to information, forums, and answers to reader questions.

About Architecture’s guide is Jackie Craven, a writer who specializes in architecture and interior design; she’s the author of The Healthy Home: Beautiful Interiors That Enhance the Environment & Your Well Being and The Stress-Free Home: Beautiful Interiors for Serenity and Harmonious Living.

Valuable Site Features for Real Estate Professionals

  • House Styles. Explore nearly three dozen of the most popular residential architectural styles in North America, including Georgian, Greek Revival, Colonial, and Cape Cod. The index provides a wealth of information on each architectural style, describing its defining characteristics and history. (These explanations include links to the Architecture Glossary, an illustrated dictionary of architectural terms.) Entries include a photo or illustration of the styles, and many include sample floor plans as well. Additionally, the site offers links where you can find books and online resources to conduct further research.
  • Architecture Photo Archives. Find sites, many from colleges and universities, featuring thousands of images of houses, commercial buildings, and monuments.
  • Top 7 House Style Guides. Read reviews of illustrated books that you can use to identify residential housing styles in the field, and then purchase these titles online.
  • Ornaments and Trim. Learn about the decorative details, such as columns, friezes, and even gargoyles that adorn homes and buildings. Entries include illustrations from the Architecture Glossary and, in some cases, links to more information.
  • Do You Live in a Mystery House? Are you or your clients stumped by questions about a house’s age or architectural style? If you have any architecture-related questions, use this page to access the Mystery House Page in the Architecture Forum. The message board allows you to post questions, and even photographs, online to seek assistance from other users. A free registration is required to post on the forum.

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    More Resources
    Architecture Guide , REALTOR® Magazine Online.
    Web Review: Architecture Sites , Chris Leporini, March 2002.
    What 21st Century Homebuyers Want: A Survey of Customer Preferences , Chris Leporini, January 2002.

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    Suggest a Site For Review
    Every week, REALTOR® Magazine Online's Web review editor surfs the Internet to find sites useful to your business and off-hours lives. Have a favorite real estate Web site that you would like to see reviewed? Send your suggestions to Chris Leporini at mediatech@realtors.org. All decisions on which sites will be reviewed are completely at the discretion of REALTOR® Magazine Online's editorial staff. Please note: this column does not review individual practitioner or brokerage sites.

    The column's focus includes free sites, as well as sites that charge for goods and services, but which still offer a free component of practical, sustained value to real estate practitioners, such as a free newsletter or regular news information.
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    REALTOR® Magazine Online's "Web Review" summarizes the content of Web sites that may be of interest to members. NAR and REALTOR® Magazine Online are not responsible for, and nothing in the Web site profile shall constitute NAR's or REALTOR® Magazine Online's endorsement of, the web site, its content, products and services, or its provider. NAR and REALTOR® Magazine Online believe the information contained in this profile was correct and accurate as of the time it was prepared, but do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of that information and are not responsible for changes in the Web site. Members should conduct their own independent review of the Web site prior to any use of Web site, its content, products, or services to determine their suitability for the member's intended purpose.

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