A book titled Building Details by Frank M. Snyder is shown standing upright. The cover displays architectural blueprints in gray and white, with the title on a white box centered on the front. The introduction is by Peter Pennoyer and Anne Walker.
An open book displaying the first page of the introduction. The left page is mostly blank, while the right page has the heading INTRODUCTION at the top and a large capital W starting the text. The background is white, and the book edges show faint patterns.
An open book displays detailed architectural technical drawings and plans, including diagrams of window and door cross-sections, construction notes, measurements, and labels, all in black and white linework on both pages.
Open book displaying detailed architectural blueprints, including a tall pointed roof, decorative elements, construction notes, sections, and measurements. The designs feature intricate structural and ornamental details, likely for a historical or religious building.
An open book displays detailed architectural drawings and diagrams in black and white, including building plans, sections, elevations, and sketches of structures, arranged in organized panels on both pages with descriptive labels and scales.
Open book displaying architectural blueprints with intricate line drawings of building cross-sections and elevations, technical details, labels, and measurements in black ink on white pages. The structure features arched windows and roof details.
Open book shows architectural blueprints with building plans, intricate facade drawings, and measurements. Black-and-white photos of a house and an eagle sculpture are included, along with technical text and detailed decorative elements on both visible pages.

Building Details

By Frank M. Snyder; Introduction by Peter Pennoyer and Anne Walker

Between 1906 and 1914, New York architect Frank M. Snyder published Building Details, a serial produced in twelve parts over eight years. Each issue consisted of ten beautifully executed sixteen- by twenty-one-inch drawings showing details of houses, civic buildings, banks, churches, clubs, and other structures designed by some of the period’s leading architects including McKim, Mead & White, John Russell Pope, Grosvenor Atterbury, and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson. Redrawing from the architects’ working drawings, Snyder paid careful attention to scale, materials, and dimensions, and incorporated full explanatory notes as well as small photographs of the projects within each plate. Intended as a design tool for architects, Building Details gives numerous construction and design suggestions that Snyder urged could be “readily adapted to any Work having similar requirements, using different materials, sizes and proportions than those shown, either for more or less expensive work.” In addition to showing the problem worked out, the drawings also would “save much valuable time in preparing Drawings of similar work” and “call attention to many things often overlooked in the preparation of Working Drawings and Specifications.” 

Not only is Building Details important in showing how architects learned and drew from the designs of the great masters; it is a rare and beautiful documentation of how these important early-twentieth-century architects realized their designs. Snyder’s 120 plates clarify details that continue to confront architects today and allow us to thoroughly see how the buildings we admire were put together. Building Details is a trove of knowledge that goes beyond conventional printed sources and continues to be an important resource for architects working today. 

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Peter Pennoyer Architects