Mission Style Architecture

Mission Style Architecture in California

by Mark Bradley on Apr 24, 2009

The architecture of the California missions is world-renowned, and the style is not simply relegated to California. Other states, including Missouri where P.T. Barnett built his Spanish Mission style Art Deco building, have adopted the style and expanded it into other areas.

Several factors influenced the Spanish mission style. Not only the Spanish architecture of the homeland, but the European Christian missions, California building materials, and native American/Mexican American influences. In California, there was a shortage of skilled labor, but the founding priests still desired to build missions reminiscent of their homeland. No two missions are identical in California, but they were all built on the same concept.

The Spanish mission style became de rigueur in the 1920%u2019s and 30%u2019s in California, and then spread to the rest of the world, utilizing some of the same materials and design elements to create homes, civic centers and office...Read More >>