Northtowns Neo-Mediterranean
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Northtowns Neo-Mediterranean refers to a vernacular style of residential architecture found largely in the northern suburbs (Tonawanda, Amherst and Clarence) of Buffalo, New York. Most Northtowns Neo-Mediterranean houses were built between the late 1960s and the early 1980s by Italian-American homebuilders, and designed to appeal to what the builders believed were the tastes of some middle-class and upper-middle-class Italian-American homebuyers at the time.
Northtowns Neo-Mediterranean houses usually include most of the following traits:
- Brick (standard modular or Roman) on the front elevation; usually cream-colored, sometimes red.
- White aluminum or vinyl siding on side and rear elevations.
- Hip roof, usually with a low pitch and large eaves.
- Windows either don't have mullions, or they have a snap-in diagonal mullion pattern grid.
- May have a Palladian motif fenestration outline on first floor facade windows, but fitted with standard rectangular windows.
- May have a two-story window, and/or window above the front door, used to bring light to a two-story foyer.
- Usually little or no articulation of the facade, except where an attached garage meets the house.
- Double-entrance front doorway.
- Interior design elements such as stair rails, kitchen cabinetry, overhead lighting fixtures, and light switch and electrical outlet cover plates, are often ornate or "elegant", with Rococo design influences.
Northtowns Neo-Mediterranean houses are usually two-story structures, but traits of the style can often be found in ranch and split-level houses of the period.
