Spanish House Plans

Spanish House Plans encompass Spanish Colonial Revival style, Spanish Moorish style, and even the California Mission style. Spanish style plans draw on the heritage and architectural details of America's Spanish-colonial architecture found in California, the Southwest, Texas, and Florida. Spanish style homes feature red-tile roofs, stucco walls, and patios. Spanish Colonial Revival houses tend to have thick walls to create cool interiors that make them well suited to warm southern climates. Smooth white plaster wall surfaces contrast with heavy wrought-iron ornamentation around windows and doors, distinctively carved and shaped columns, and patterned tile or ceramic floor and stairway treatments bring touches of Andalusia and other parts of Old Spain -- as well as Mexico -- to the Spanish house plan. Spanish floor plans tend to have an asymmetrical front with small, irregularly placed windows and heavy, rounded doors with decorative carving. Santa Barbara architect George Washington Smith was one of the most influential early practitioners of the Spanish Colonial Revival style, which became popular after it was used for major buildings at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Diego of 1915 (some, by architect Bertram Goodhue, still exist).