Spanish Colonial
In my years as a practicing landscape architect, I've found that designers love in particular to borrow elements from the Spanish Colonial style of architecture. In fact, it has become one of the most important and influential of all architectural forms. This archetypal architecture flourished between the 16th and early-19th centuries in the New World and is based upon historical models established in
Here in America, our idea of history goes back only so far. That's particularly true in southern California, where "older" architecture is anything before about 1960 and very few structures date to a time before 1920. But it's also the case for most of the rest of the country with reference to architecture: We don't have the "ancient" structures that still set the tone and architectural vocabulary the way they do in Europe, Asia and other places. For those who prefer modern or contemporary styles, this lack of history may be irrelevant. For those who feel an affinity to older styles, however, there's a tendency to cringe every time an older house is torn down to
