Types

sun decks

Decks or flat roofs intended for sunbathing.

sunbursts

Generally, a stylized sun motif showing the rays of the sun shooting out from or surrounding it. Specifically in America, it refers to a lunette with conventionalized sun rays, typically found on 18th-century American furniture. In British heraldry, it refers to a device of sun's rays appearing from behind a cloud; this was used as a badge by the English kings Edward III and Richard II.

Sunday schools (buildings)

Buildings that house schools, usually associated with Christian churches and mainly for children, in which religious instruction is given on Sundays.

sunken gardens

Formal gardens or portions of gardens that by design are set at a lower level than their surroundings.

superblocks

Designates very large, usually residential, city blocks often formed by consolidating several smaller blocks and often barred to through traffic and crossed by pedestrian walks.

supermarkets

Large, self-service, retail markets which sell food, household goods, and household merchandise.

superstructures

Refers to the upper portions of buildings or other structures located above the foundation and usually above ground level.

supper rooms

Rooms found in large houses and hotels intended for meals that are part of late evening entertainments.

suspension bridges

Bridges in which the roadway is suspended from cables, ropes, or chains attached to natural or constructed supports. The term applies both to primitive and massively engineered structures that share this basic principle.

sustainable

No description is available for this term.

swales

Either used for long, narrow land depressions, especially on shores and largely parallel to coastlines, or for narrow, valleylike features formed where two slopes intersect.

swamps

Tracts of lowlying ground in which water collects, particularly wetlands partially or intermittently covered with water, often dominated by woody vegetation.

swimming pools

Artificial bodies of water designed for swimming, either sunken into the ground or created by the construction of walls, whether or not the pool is housed within a structure or open to the sky.

swing bridges

Drawbridges that open and close to river craft by rotating around a central pier.

synagogues (buildings)

Community places for the regular assembly or congregation of Jews for liturgical services, assembly, and study apart from the service of the temple; since the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, worship at the synagogue is the sole place of public worship.

tabernacles (Christian buildings)

Places of worship that are distinguished from churches by not being of ecclesiastical architectural design, and by being temporary places of worship or the meeting houses of Protestant Nonconformists.

tack rooms

Rooms in or attached to a horse barn or stable for the storage and maintenance of riding tack and often of stud records or for the display of prizes or other honors of the stable.

tahōtō

Buildings that replaced the pagoda in some temple complexes of Esoteric Buddhism; literally "many-jewelled pagoda", "pagoda of many tiers", or "multi-treasure tower". These were introduced to Japan during the Heian period (794-1185) and are characterized by a white, plaster hemisphere rising from a square substructure. A famous example of these is the Ishiyamadera Pagoda in Otsu near Kyoto, erected in 1154.

tank farms

Designates areas where a large number of high-capacity storage tanks are located, usually used for crude oil or other petroleum products.

tanneries

Buildings or parts of buildings where tanning occurs, which is the treating of hides or skins with tannins to produce leather.

taverns

Primarily 17th- to early 19th-century English and American places of eating, drinking, and public accommodations, which often became local centers of social gatherings; distinguished from "inns" which emphasize their overnight accommodations and also provide food and drinking facilities; for establishments that emphasize drinking, especially liquors, use "pubs" or "saloons."

taxiways

Usually paved strips for taxiing at an airport.

tea rooms

Establishments where tea and other nonalcoholic refreshments and pastries or light meals are served. For establishments that sell tea leaves, use "tea stores."

teachers colleges (buildings)

Buildings that house four-year colleges offering courses for the training of primary and secondary school teachers and granting bachelor's degrees and often advanced degrees.

teaching hospitals

Hospitals where formal medical training takes place, usually affiliated with nursing or medical schools.

teahouses

Designates small buildings for the Japanese tea ceremony.

technology center

No description is available for this term.

telecommunications buildings

No description is available for this term.

telegraph offices

Buildings or parts of buildings housing equipment and personnel for the transmission and receipt of telegraphs, which comprise information relayed by coded signals over a distance, which was at its height from the mid-19th through early 20th centuries.

telegraph stations

Buildings or other structures housing or supporting telegraph switching or repeater equipment.

telephone booths

Small structures, typically large enough for a single person to comfortably enter and furnished with a payphone for public use. They are typically characterized by having a door for privacy and windows to alert others that the booth is in use.

telephone exchanges

Buildings housing the central switching point for telephone communications.

television stations

Broadcasting stations for sending and receiving television programming transmissions; for rooms and spaces designed for the origination or recording of television programs, use "television studios."

television studios

A series of rooms specifically designed for the origination of live or taped television programs;(MHDSTT) for the larger facilities, including offices and equipment, from where the transmissions are sent and received, use "television stations."

television towers

Tall, usually metal, freestanding or guyed towers used as or carrying television transmitting antennas.

temples (buildings)

Buildings housing places devoted to the worship of a deity or deities. In the strictest sense, it refers to the dwelling place of a deity, and thus often houses a cult image. In modern usage a temple is generally a structure, but it was originally derived from the Latin "templum" and historically has referred to an uncovered place affording a view of the surrounding region. For Christian or Islamic religious buildings the terms "churches" or "mosques" are generally used, but an exception is that "temples" is used for Protestant, as opposed to Roman Catholic, places of worship in France and some French-speaking regions.

temporary city

No description is available for this term.

temporary housing

Housing that is intended to provide accommodation for residents for a relatively short period of time.

temporary structures

Buildings, monuments, and other structures that are intended to be non-permanent, sometimes transportable. Erected for festive or sporting events or to provide access to or protection or support of facilities under construction.

tenement houses

Use only for buildings containing rental apartments that are in large cities, occupied by poorer people, generally built to minimum standards of sanitation, safety, and comfort, and often in run-down condition.

tennis clubs

Buildings or rooms occupied by associations formed to combine the operations of persons interested in the promotion or playing of tennis.

tensile structures

Structures under tensile loads, such as cable or membrane structures.

tent roofs

Roofs with a square, octagonal, or other base and steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak. May include Russian and Victorian wooden structures as well as membrane and thin shell structures comprising roofs of modern structures and actual tents. For such roofs in the specific context of Russian architecture, use "saters."

tents (portable buildings)

Collapsible shelters of canvas, skins, plastic, or other flexible and water-repellent material stretched and sustained by poles, usually secured by ropes to pegs in the ground.

terminal care facilities

Facilities specializing in the care of the dying or the incurably ill.

terminals (buildings)

Transportation buildings, or stations, which are usually built to act as a terminal point for airlines, a railway, a bus service, or another type of transportation.

terrace houses

Designates lines of dwellings situated on a sloping, terraced, or similar site.

terraces (landscaped-site elements)

Level paved or planted areas, usually elevated above surrounding terrain and adjacent to buildings or parts of garden complexes.

test sites

Locations where, usually very destructive, weapons are exploded distant from an observation point; also, where scientific field explorations or investigations are conducted, as in archaeology or geology. For complexes where weapons are tested under close scrutiny, use "proving grounds."

tetrastyle

Of buildings, particularly classic Greek and Roman temples and buildings like them in structure, having a row or rows of four columns at one or both ends.

textile mill structures

Industrial structures found at textile mills.

textile mills

Facilities where textiles and textile products are created, often including the weaving and sewing processes, as well as the preparation of the fibers or other materials from which textiles are made.

theater elements

Architectural elements found in theaters.

theater spaces

Spaces and rooms located in theaters.

theaters (buildings)

Buildings having a stage or projection screen for the presentation of dramatic performances and providing seating areas for spectators.

theaters (institutions)

Institutions that maintain facilities for the presentation of dramatic performances to spectators.

theme parks

Amusement parks organized round a unifying idea or group of ideas, for example, Medieval castles or science fiction.

theme towns

Towns which invent or reinvent themselves on a particular theme in order to attract tourism. Generally, residential areas of such towns do not incorporate the adopted theme.

theological seminaries (buildings)

Buildings that house schools providing education in, for example, theology and religious history, primarily, but not exclusively, to prepare students for jobs as priests, ministers, or church workers; usually sponsored or controlled by a church or other religious organization. For buildings that house schools devoted especially to the training of rabbis, use "rabbinical seminaries."

tholoi

Use to designate circular buildings of classical date, with or without a peristyle.

three-deckers (dwellings)

Multiple dwellings comprised of three housing units set one above the other; for dwellings having three housing units set side by side on one level, use "triplexes (multiple dwellings)."

thrift shops

Retail stores that sell secondhand goods at reduced prices.

through trusses

Bridge trusses supporting loads on their lower chords and having lateral bracing between their top chords.

thrust stages

Open stages that project into the audience.

ticket offices

Rooms or spaces from which tickets are sold, as for films, travel, or sporting events.

tinworks

Establishments where tin is mined or processed.

tipis

Conical tent dwellings of poles gathered together at the top, spread into a circle on the ground, and covered with skins or canvas; common to Native American tribes of the Great Plains.

tipples

Structures where coal is unloaded from mining cars by means of a tipping device.

tobacco barns

Agricultural structures in which tobacco is dried and cured, with or without supplemental heat.

tobacconists' shops

Stores whose primary commodities are tobacco products and smoking accessories.

tokonoma

In Japanese architecture, an interior space that may have evolved historically from the private altars of Zen Buddhist monks, used for the display of devotional objects; then later as elevated seating for warriors or dignitaries. The most recent use of the space in Japanese houses is for the display of flower arrangements and scrolls that set the mood of the tea ceremony, or other art objects.

toll bridges

Bridges at which toll is charged for passage.

toll plazas

Rows of toll booths on a toll road, where traffic is stopped or slowed to collect tolls.

tollbooths

Booth, stalls, or offices at which tolls, duties, or customs are collected, particularly booths at which the toll for the right of passage across a bridge or along a road are collected.

tollhouses

Houses or other buildings designed or used primarily for the collection of tolls or dues.

tombs

Elaborations constructed over or around burial sites; for simple interments in the earth, use "graves."

tombstones (sepulchral monuments)

Refers to stones or metal plates designating graves or tombs, almost always located outdoors, usually vertically-placed freestanding slabs or slabs placed horizontally on the ground, over graves or at the entrances of tombs. In early use, referred to the covers of stone coffins or the stone coffins themselves. For stones placed flush with the floor over a tomb in an interior space, use "tomb slabs."

topiary

Trees or shrubs pruned and trained into various geometric, zoomorphic, or fantastic shapes.

torii

Gateways to Shinto shrines, generally composed of two columns and two horizontal spanning members often with slight upward curvature at their ends.

totem poles

Poles carved and painted with a series of totemic symbols, erected before the homes of Native Americans of the northwestern coast of North America.

tourist cabins

One of a number of small, individually housed units in a motel.

tourist centers

Communities of any size for which tourism is a significant commercial activity.

tourist towns

Communities of modest size that have tourism as an important industry.

tourist villages

Communities of small size where the central economic activities are built around tourism.

tower buildings

Modern high-rise buildings whose main mass rises, with the tall slender proportions of a tower, from a larger low base. For usually detached or isolated buildings or other structures high in proportion to their lateral dimensions, use "towers (single built works)."

tower houses (defensive structures)

Distinctly vertical dwellings, built for defensive purposes, usually of stone and with at least three to four stories.

towers (building divisions)

Parts of buildings with walls rising considerably above the rest, usually with vertical proportions, and to some extent architecturally distinct. For usually detached or isolated buildings or other structures high in proportion to their lateral dimensions, use "towers (single built works)."

towers (single built works)

Detached or isolated buildings or other structures high in proportion to their lateral dimensions. For parts of buildings with walls rising with vertical proportions considerably above the rest, use "towers (building divisions)." For modern high-rise buildings with a towerlike main mass rising from a larger low base, use "tower buildings."

town halls

Principal public administration buildings of towns and villages housing offices for transaction of government business and places for public assembly.

town houses

Use only for individual freestanding urban dwellings. For attached urban dwellings each having its own private entrance, use "row houses."

Town lattice trusses

Trusses of closely spaced intersecting diagonal members, usually of wood, following a design patented by Ithiel Town in 1820. Trusses of closely spaced intersecting diagonal members, usually of wood, following a design patented by Ithiel Town in 1820.

townhouses

No description is available for this term.

towns

Distinctions among villages, towns, and cities are relative and vary according to their individual regional contexts. Towns generally are units of compact settlement larger than villages and less important and internally complex than cities in the region.

townscapes (built environment)

The built forms of towns, cities, or other built-up areas, in combination, as perceived visually and aesthetically. For representations of towns or cities, as in drawings or photographs, use "townscapes (representations)."

townships

Any of various international territorial divisions, typically a section of a county forming a unit of local government. In the United States, surveyed tracts of public land measuring 6 miles square and divided into 36 sections of 1 square mile each.

towpaths

Paths along canals or rivers, used by people oranimals for towing boats.

tract houses

Groups of similarly designed houses located in subdivisions; used to distinguish from those houses that are custom designed and built.

tracts (land areas)

Expanses or extended areas of land, outdoor space, or territory.

trade marts

Designates buildings or building complexes providing wholesalers with a single location having display spaces for product vendors of various trades, such as apparel, furnishings, or business equipment.

trade routes

A route followed by traders, particularly caravans, or by merchant ships.