Glossary
Architectural Terms
Apron: A raised panel below a window sill.
Architrave: The lowest part of an entablature, sometimes used by itself.
Balustrade: An entire railing system including a top rail, balusters and often a bottom rail.
Batten: A narrow strip of wood applied to cover a joint along the edges of two parallel boards in the same plane.
Beaded-Profile Panels: Panels manufactured to resemble traditional bead board.
Brickmold: Window or door trim, typically 2 inches wide.
Corbelling: Brickwork projecting successively more in each course to support or meet a structure above.
Corinthian: The slenderest and most ornate of the three Greek orders of architecture, having elaborate capitals with volutes and acanthus leaf decoration.
Corner Board: A board which is used as trim on the external corner of a wood framed structure.
Cornice: An ornamental molding at the meeting of the roof and walls; usually consists of bed molding, soffit, fascia and crown molding.
Crown Molding: Projecting molding forming the top member of a cornice, door or window frame.
Dentil: One of a band of small, square, tooth-like blocks forming part of the characteristic ornamentation of some classical orders.
Doric Order: The column and entablature developed by the Dorian Greeks, sturdy in proportion, with a simple cushion capital, a frieze of triglyphs and metopes, and mutules in the cornice.
Entablature: In classical architecture, the elaborated beam member carried by the columns, horizontally divided into architrave, frieze and cornice.
Fascia: Vertical board that terminates a sloped roof at the eave.
Frieze: The middle horizontal member of a classical entablature, above the architrave and below the cornice.
Gable: The vertical triangular portion of the end of a building having a double sloping roof, from the level of the cornice or eaves to the ridge of the roof.
Gable Roof: A roof having a gable at one or both ends.
Hipped Roof: A roof which slopes upward from all four sides of a building, requiring a hip rafter at each corner.
Ionic Order: The classical order of architecture characterized by its capital with large volutes, an entablature, continuous frieze, and by its elegant detailing.
Jack Arch: A flat or straight masonry arch.
Light: A pane of glass, a window or a subdivision of a window.
Lintel: A horizontal structural member (such as a beam) over an opening which carries the weight of the wall above it.
Louver: An assembly of sloping, overlapping blades or slats designed to admit air and/or light and exclude rain and snow.
Mullion and Muntin: The vertical and horizontal members separating (and often supporting) window, doors, or panels set in series.
Ogee Curve: A double curve resembling an S-shape.
Pediment: In classical architecture, the triangular gable end of the roof above the horizontal cornice. Also, a surface used ornamentally over doors or windows.
Pilaster: An engaged pier or pillar, often with capital and base.
Rafter Tails: A rafter, bracket, or joist which projects beyond the side of a building and supports an overhanging portion of the roof.
Roof Pitch: The slope of a roof expressed as a ratio of its vertical rise to its horizontal rise.
Sash: Any framework of a window. May be movable or fixed; may slide in a vertical plane or pivoted.
Simulated Divided Light: Refers to a light in a window sash that is visually subdivided by applied muntins that simulates a true divided sash.
Skirt Board: A board set horizontally at the bottom of wall cladding.
Soffit: The exposed undersurface of any overhead component of a building, such as a beam, cornice, lintel, or vault.
Stile-and-rail: Door construction that utilizes a framework of vertical and horizontal members infilled with panels.
Transom: A horizontal bar of wood or stone across a window. Also the window or opening above the transom bar.
Vernacular Architecture: A mode of building based on regional forms and materials.
Vocabulary: A collection of related architectural elements, materials or stylistic conventions used to describe a building or structure.
Water Course or Water Table: A board or masonry projection fixed to the foot of a wall to shoot water away from it.
Surveying Terms
LOMA A letter from FEMA stating that an existing structure or parcel of land that has not been elevated by fill (natural grade) would not be inundated by the base flood.
LOMR-F A letter from FEMA stating that an existing structure or parcel of land that has been elevated by fill would not be inundated by the base flood.
North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88) - A geodetic reference for elevations, created by the NGS to replace the NGVD 29. This new datum was published in 1991, and incorporates vertical datums used on the Great Lakes. It is adjusted based on field work prior to 1929 as well as surveys as recent as 1988.
National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD 29)- A geodetic reference for elevations, completed and adjusted in 1929. These elevations were used to define the mean sea level datum. This datum was replaced by NAVD 88.
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