Types

pendentive domes

Domes with inner surfaces continuous with the surfaces of their pendentives.

peninsulas

Landforms surrounded by water on three sides, not completey independent from the mainland.

penitentiaries (buildings)

Generally refers to buildings housing prisons for those convicted of major crimes.

penitentiaries (institutions)

Generally refers to prisons for those convicted of major crimes. The term derives from the type of prison authorized by the British 1779 Penitentiary Act, enforcing strict discipline and hard labor intended to reform as well as punish. Given that, in modern systems, most prisons include reformatory or correctional functions, the original distinction is lost and the term "penitentiary" often refers to any "prison" in common usage. In the United States, penitentiaries are state or federal prisons that are reserved for the detention of convicted felons.

Pennsylvania bank barns

Barns built into hillsides and generally characterized by stone end walls and a ramp up to a second floor containing crops and machinery which overhangs, on the barnyard side, a first floor kept for livestock.

penthouses (building divisions)

Structures enclosing useful space that constitute the top level of multistory buildings and have walls set back significantly from the walls of the story below; includes quite small structures, surrounded by large areas of flat roof, such as shelters for elevator machinery.

penthouses (roofs)

Sloping roofs placed either against buildings so as to create smaller substructures (such as a sheds or outhouses) or over doorways or windows to protect from the weather.

performing arts buildings

Buildings that are used for public arts performances.

performing arts centers

Buildings or groups of buildings containing auditoriums, multipurpose spaces, and auxiliary facilities suitable for the presentation of various performing arts, such as concerts, operas, and plays.

performing arts structures

Built works used for arts and public performance.

pergolas

Garden structures with open wood-framed roofs, often latticed, supported by regularly spaced posts or columns; often covered by climbing plants such as vines or roses, shading a walk or passageway. Distinguished from "arbors," which are less extensive in extent and structure.

period rooms

Rooms in museums in which furnishings are displayed within a historically accurate architectural setting.

periodic markets

Markets at which buyers and sellers converge according to a regular schedule; merchants set up temporary stands or tables, usually occupying the same location in the market space and offering the same goods for sale on each occasion.

peristyles (Roman courtyards)

Refers to the court toward the back of a Roman house, commonly with a small garden surrounded by a colonnade.

pesthouses

Shelters or hospitals for those infected with a pestilential or contagious disease.

petroglyphs

Large scale low-relief carved, incised, or painted images on living rock, often created by ancient peoples.

physical education buildings

Buildings in which individuals can learn and develop skills in sports, exercises, and hygiene.

piazzas (squares)

In Italian cities and towns, open public spaces usually surrounded by buildings.

picket fences

Fences formed of a series of vertical posts, stakes, or rods, sometimes sharpened at the upper end, which are joined together by horizontal rails.

picnic areas

Areas in parks or other municipally maintained spaces designated for open-air food preparation and dining. They are commonly furnished with tables, seats, and waste receptacles.

pictographs

Highly simplified or conventionalized pictures that stand for the thing pictured; may be used as writing signs corresponding to individual words or phonetic elements in a language. Use also for certain prehistoric pictures and linear designs whose meanings are uncertain.

picture windows

Outsize windows placed to frame or as if to frame a desirable exterior view; it may be placed between two narrower windows, typically in a living room or other such room in a home.

piers (marine landings)

Structures extending from the shoreline out over the sea or tidal river, to protect or partially enclose a harbor and form a landing place for vessels, or to serve as a recreational or entertainment place. A pier may also be a projecting landing stage or jetty on the bank of a river or lake. For structures built along or parallel to the shoreline serving as landing, loading, or unloading places for vessels, use "wharves" or "quays."

piers (supporting elements)

Refers to relatively isolated, solid supports of masonry or another material designed to sustain vertical pressure, including a square or rectangular pillar or pilaster, the solid masonry between doors and windows, the pillars from which an arch springs, or the pillars or posts of a gate or door. A pier may also be a solid structure of masonry or ironwork supporting a telescope or other large instrument. It is sometimes distinguished from columns or posts by being more massive in size and often square or rectangular in cross section. For cylindrical uprights and for all uprights in steel and concrete frames, the term "columns (architectural elements)" is more often appropriate; for wooden uprights square in cross-section, "posts" may be more appropriate.

pig houses

Sheds or small barns constructed to house pigs. For large commercial facilities, use "hog houses."

pigsties

Enclosures for pigs that include a covered pen and yard.

pilasters

Shallow piers or rectangular columns projecting only slightly from a wall and, in classical architecture, conforming with one of the orders.(PDARC) Common also on furniture.

pilgrimage centers

Communities that grew up around or have economies centered on a site of religious pilgrimage and activities associated with the site.

pilot plants

Designates experimental facilities, usually small scaled-down versions of a planned plant, built to test manufacturing processes and generally gain experience prior to operating the final facility.

pit dwellings

Houses, common during the prehistoric periods of many cultures, whose floors are dug out deeply below the adjacent ground level. Use "sunken huts" for multipurpose buildings of the first millennium CE, found in England and throughout northern Europe.

pitched roofs

Designates roofs with one or more surfaces that have a pitch greater than 10 degrees from the horizontal.

pits (earthworks)

Cavities in the earth, usually not below ground water level, that are shallow in proportion to their width and generally created for materials extraction or burial.

pits (theater spaces)

Refers to the ground floors of theaters, especially those at the rear; most appropriate in an English and historical rather than a modern American context.

pivoted windows

Windows whose sash rotates about fixed vertical or horizontal pivots, located at or toward the center.

planetaria (buildings)

Buildings housing devices for projecting celestial images onto the interior of a dome for public viewing; may also be used for the projecting mechanisms. For mechanical models of the solar system, use "orreries."

planets

Large natural objects that orbit a star or a stellar remnant. Planets are not radiating energy from internal nuclear fusion reactions, are not a brown dwarfs, and are bigger than an asteroid. Planets are large enough to have become round due to the force of their own gravity, and dominate the neighborhood around their orbit, and are thus distinguished from dwarf planets.

planing mills

Establishments primarily engaged in producing surfaced lumber, by cutting, smoothing, and matching wood.

planned communities

Settlements or urban or suburban environments of any size that are developed according to a single plan, usually on a previously undeveloped site.

planned unit developments

Complexes designed as unified sites that include a mix of building types and uses, common open space, and controlled density increases, rather than lot-by-lot schemes.

plans (maps)

No description is available for this term.

plantation houses

Refers to the primary, and usually largest, residences on plantations.

plantation owners

People or groups of people who own and oversee the high-level operation of plantations, which are agricultural complexes usually worked by resident labor, often reserved for those in tropical or sub-tropical locations. The term often has negative connotations in modern usage, because many plantations relied upon slave labor in the 17th through 19th centuries.

plantations

Generally, agricultural complexes usually worked by resident labor. More specifically, large estates in tropical or subtropical regions that are usually cultivated by resident unskilled or semi-skilled labor under central direction. Meaning and usage overlap with "estates(commercial agricultural holding)," although such estates are typically smaller enterprises than plantations.

planters (containers)

Any of various containers in which plants are grown or placed for decorative purposes.

plateaus (landforms)

Tablelands or flat-topped areas of considerable extent elevated above the surrounding countryside and bounded on at least one side by a vertical face.

platform mounds

Artificial earthen mounds with a flat summit, intended to support a structure or activity. They were particularly prominent in the Pre-Columbian American cultures.

plats (land)

Areas of land generally characterized by being of medium size, often comprising an individual's property, often rectangular or of another regular shape, and defined by precise boundaries. Distinguished from "lots (land)," which are typically smaller, used for a single building, and often found in a town or urban environment rather than in the countryside.

playgrounds

Areas used play and recreation, especially by children, and often containing such equipment as swings, slides, seesaws, etc.

playrooms

Rooms fitted out or reserved for children to play in.

plazas (squares)

Small public squares in towns or landscaped pedestrian spaces adjacent to office buildings or parking areas.

pleasure gardens

Gardens, whether public or private, intended for enjoyment and amusement. Pleasure gardens may focus on flowers, shrubs, vegetables, and fruit trees, together with pedestrian paths, water features, mazes, vistas, etc.; typically enclosed by a wall or hedge. For larger areas having a similar purpose but without an enclosing wall and including woods, use "pleasure parks." Later pleasure gardens were sometimes open to the public and charged a fee for admittance.

podiums (building divisions)

Continuous pedestals or bases of buildings; appropriate for such elements in Roman or Etruscan temples. For similar features found in Greek temples prefer "stylobates."

pointed arches

Arches composed of two intersecting arcs of a circle, struck so that the apex of the arch is a point.

police academies (buildings)

Buildings that house schools for training individuals to become policemen, usually in accordance with state requirements.

police stations

Headquarters for the police of a particular district, from which police officers are dispatched and to which persons under arrest are brought.

polo fields

Outdoor or indoor areas of turf for play of the equestrian sport of polo. The outdoor polo field has dimensions of 300 x 160 yards, with goals located at each end between two vertical goal posts that are 24 feet apart and light enough to break in case of collision. Outdoor or indoor areas of turf for play of the equestrian sport of polo. The outdoor polo field has dimensions of 300 x 160 yards, with goals located at each end between two vertical goal posts that are 24 feet apart and light enough to break in case of collision.

polyclinics

Buildings that house clinics treating diseases and injuries of many sorts, offering broad general care that is usually on an outpatient basis. Polyclinics include hospital outpatient departments at a general practitioner health center or hospital in an urban or town environment, as well as facilities attached to major factories or other work places. They often contain reception and waiting rooms, a registration desk, consulting and treatment rooms, a pathological laboratory, X-ray facilities, physiotherapy areas, and small operating theaters.

polygonal

Having the form of a plane figure with three or more straight sides and the same number of angles.

polygons

Geometric plane figures having three or more straight sides and the same number of angles.

polytechnics (buildings)

Buildings that are distinguished from "universities" by traditionally providing space for training technicians in business, industry, and commerce for an immediate local area, having fewer residence facilities, and offering more part-time classes. For buildings housing educational institutions emphasizing training in agriculture or specific trades, use "vocational schools."

ponds (water)

Relatively small bodies of water, usually surrounded on all sides by land.

pool halls

Refers to public establishments equipped with pool and/or billiard tables.

pools (bodies of water)

Still bodies of water smaller than ponds.

porches

Use to designate roofed spaces, open along two or more sides and adjunct to a building, commonly serving either to shelter an entrance or used as living space.

portable buildings

Buildings designed to be movable rather than permanently located.

porte-cochères

Projecting roofs or porchlike structures that shelter vehicles and passengers at the entrances to buildings; also for short vehicular tunnels through buildings, sheltering an entrance.

porticoes

Roofed porchlike spaces, open along at least one side and usually associated with an entrance, supported by columns and often surmounted by a pediment; porticoes may project from the main building mass or be recessed in it.

ports (settlements)

Settlement areas possessing a harbor and terminal facilities used for loading or unloading, or water transportation. By extension, the term is also applied to such areas facilitating air transportation.

ports of entry

Places such as harbors, airports, or border crossing facilities through which people and goods may lawfully enter a country.

post exchanges

Shops at military posts where goods and services are available to military personnel and authorized civilians, whether the goods are provided by the military or by a sutler.

post offices

Public buildings within a government postal system at which mail is received and sorted, from which it is distributed, and at which stamps are sold and other services rendered.

post-and-beam structures

Structures based on upright posts or columns supporting horizontal beams or lintels; these exclude balloon frames and platform frames, in which support is by stud walls.

potter's fields

Public burial places for paupers, unknown persons, and criminals.

potteries (manufactories)

Establishments that specialize in making clay pottery, such as earthen pots or vessels.

poultry houses

Structures constructed for or used to shelter poultry, having either a large open space provided with food, water, and roosting areas, often with an accessible opening to the outdoors, or a series of small pens containing one or two animals raised for meat or to produce eggs.

powder magazines

Military storage buildings for priming powder and similar explosives.

powder mills

Refers to factories in which gunpowder is made.

power plants

Complexes of buildings and other structures with machinery for generating electricity. For individual buildings in which electricity, or other forms of power, are generated for the operation of machinery or vehicles, or supplying power to other buildings in a complex, use "powerhouses."

powerhouses

Buildings in which electricity or other forms of power are generated for the operation of machinery or vehicles, or supplying power to other buildings in a complex; distinguished from "power plants" which are complexes producing power on a much larger scale.

praetoriums

In the ancient Roman Empire, the official residences of provincial governors.

prairies

Extensive unwooded grasslands, usually flat or gently rolling; found in the central portions of North America.

Pratt trusses

Trusses having parallel chords, vertical members in compression, and diagonal members (which slant toward the center) in tension.

Pre-Columbian (American)

Refers to the aboriginal Native American cultures that developed in North, South and Central America before the arrival of Europeans beginning in the late 15th century CE. The term is sometimes used more narrowly to only refer to early cultures from Mexico and Central and South America.

precincts

Districts within a city, town, or other community marked out for specific governmental or administrative purposes, such as for electoral, school, or police services.

prefabrication

The making of components, usually standardized and factory-made, that are later assembled during the construction of an object or structure.

prehistoric sites

Sites that contain evidence of prehistoric human activity, often through archaeological investigation.

preparatory schools (buildings)

Buildings that house private schools intended to prepare students for more advanced formal education.

presidential libraries (buildings)

Buildings housing institutions that are typically more like museums or archives than libraries, containing the papers and sometimes exhibits about a given U.S. president and his administration.

presidential residences

Dwellings built for or inhabited by the president of a nation.

presidios

Military settlements established by the Spanish in America often as garrisoned forts or outposts.

press boxes

The quarters assigned as working space for media personnel, as at sporting events and political conventions, and usually equipped with communications facilities.

print shops (stores)

Printsellers' shops, that is, stores in which the primary items for sale are prints.

printing plants

Facilities, office, or business where the printing of books or other works takes place.

printing presses

Devices used to transfer an impression from type, blocks, plates, or stones to a surface, usually paper.

priories

Religious houses that rank immediately below abbeys and are presided over by a prior or prioress.

prisons (buildings)

Buildings or other facilities to which people are legally committed as punishment for a crime or while awaiting trial. In North America, the term specifically denotes a facility run by the state or federal government for those who have been convicted of serious crimes, in contrast to a locally run facility for those awaiting trial or convicted of minor offences. As developed since the late 18th century, prisons are generally characterized by cell and corridor plans with separation by offense and sex, and programs of rehabilitation provided as means toward prisoner reform. Use "jails (buildings)" for places for offenders sentenced either for lesser crimes or relatively short terms.

prisons (institutions)

Institutions having facilities where people are legally committed as punishment for a crime or while awaiting trial. In North America, the term specifically denotes a facility run by the state or federal government for those who have been convicted of serious crimes, in contrast to a locally run facility for those awaiting trial or convicted of minor offences. Use "jails (institutions)" for facilities for offenders sentenced either for lesser crimes or relatively short terms.

private chapels

Rooms or other relatively small places set aside for worship by an individual, family, or small group, where no public services are provided. A private chapel may be within the confines of a larger church, home, or other larger building; it may also be a free standing structure.

private gardens

Originally, gardens designed to reflect the power and largesse of the aristocracy. Contemporary usage extends to gardens maintained by individuals that are somehow enclosed or secluded, regardless of size, and that may evoke the fanciful or fantastic. Variations of the private garden may be designed to house a collection of artworks, or to highlight a particular plant genus.

private libraries (buildings)

Buildings or spaces housing lbraries that are formed by the collections of individuals rather than as a public institution.