neo-renaissance
An adaptation of Italian Renaissance features to buildings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with restrained classical ornament.
Pictured: 292 Madison Avenue
Renaissance Revival is a 19th- and early 20th-century renewal of forms and motifs from Renaissance architecture. It was the dominant building style in many parts of northern Europe at the end of the 19th century, and remained very popular in North America through the 1920s.
Like the Renaissance style it is based on, Renaissance Revival is a highly flexible style encompassing a variety of motifs and forms differing between countries and regions. It employs a classical vocabulary without monumentalism, integrating pilasters, arches, and pediments into various features on a smaller scale and with less rigidity than in neo-classical architecture.
Common features include pronounced borders with curved or triangular pediments around windows and doors, and clear divisions between levels, wings, or sections. Decoration tends to be regular, symmetrical, and balanced, with a moderate degree of depth. Ornate gables with curled edge lines are common, and features from Renaissance fortresses such as turrets and castellations appear occasionally.
Approximate Dates: 1895 to 1930
