Naming the Portland Vernacular: Identifying Portland’s Most Common House Styles

Anyone that has spent time trying to classify Portland area houses within a specific architectural style has certainly encountered confusion and frustration. The fact is that thousands of the houses in our area are not readily identifiable using typical style conventions or are a composite of a variety of architectural elements.

Please join us as AHC Education Committee member and architectural historian Thomas Hubka describes the ways we can identify and name Portland’s most common houses according to not only their architectural details, but other physical characteristics, like floor plans. You’ll even earn about what is perhaps the most common house “style” in the city: the “Portland Bungalow,” With this new found knowledge you’ll become a neighborhood expert, able to amaze your friends and family!

Thomas Hubka is a Professor Emeritus from the Department of Architecture, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has also taught architecture courses at Portland State University, the University of Oregon, and Portland Community College and leads walking tours for the AHC. His latest book about vernacular architecture is: Houses Without Names: Architectural Nomenclature and the Classification of America’s Common Houses (University of Tennessee Press: 2013).

Space is limited. Pre-Registration is recommended.