Elevation views most likely show the exterior appearance of a building as seen straight on from one side, including vertical dimensions like wall heights, window and door placement, roof shape, and exterior materials. They are flat, two-dimensional drawings that depict what you’d see if you stood directly in front of a building and looked at it without any perspective distortion.
If you’re encountering this term in a class or on an exam, the short answer is: elevations show the vertical face of a structure, with height as the most important dimension. They do not show depth, interior layouts, or anything hidden behind the surface you’re viewing.
What an Elevation View Represents
An elevation drawing captures one face of a building in two dimensions. Think of it as a photograph taken from perfectly straight on, flattened so there’s no sense of depth or angle. Each side of a building gets its own elevation, typically labeled by the compass direction it faces (north elevation, south elevation) or by what it looks toward (front, rear, left side, right side).
The purpose is to communicate vertical relationships. While a floor plan shows you how rooms are arranged horizontally, an elevation tells you how tall things are, where they sit relative to the ground, and what the finished surface looks like. Height is the single most important dimension on any elevation drawing. All vertical measurements are referenced from a baseline, usually the ground level (called “grade”) or the finished first floor.
Key Features on Exterior Elevations
Exterior elevations are the most common type, and they pack a lot of information into a single view:
- Windows and doors: Their exact placement, size, and style. Doors often include dotted lines showing which side the hinges are on, drawn from the top and bottom corners to the center of the opposite side.
- Roof shape and pitch: The slope of the roof, overhangs, and any features like dormers or mechanical penthouses on top of the building.
- Wall materials and finishes: Siding, brick, stone, stucco, or glass are shown using hatch patterns or shading so you can tell at a glance what the building is made of.
- Ground line: The exterior grade, showing how the building meets the earth and whether the terrain slopes.
- Chimneys, stairs, and lighting: Any elements attached to or projecting from the wall surface.
Architects use standardized symbols to represent different materials. Brick has its own pattern, concrete masonry gets another, and wood, insulation, and stone each have distinct markings. These patterns let anyone reading the drawing identify the specified materials without needing written labels on every surface, though written callouts (called “keynotes”) are usually included as well.
What Interior Elevations Show
Interior elevations work the same way but focus on individual walls inside a room. They’re especially common for kitchens, bathrooms, and any space with built-in elements. An interior elevation of a kitchen wall, for example, would show the height of the countertops (typically about three feet off the floor), where upper cabinets start and stop, the placement of appliances, and any backsplash material.
You’ll also see ceiling heights, crown molding profiles, door heights (often called out with a specific dimension like eight feet), light fixture locations, and transitions between wall finishes. If one portion of a wall is tile and the rest is painted drywall, the interior elevation is where that boundary gets defined.
How Elevations Differ From Plans and Sections
The easiest way to understand elevations is to compare them with the other common drawing types. A floor plan is a horizontal slice through the building, looking down. It shows room layouts, wall thicknesses, and how spaces connect, but it tells you almost nothing about height.
A building section is a vertical slice through the building, as if you cut it in half and looked at the exposed interior. Sections reveal structural layers, floor thicknesses, and how different levels stack on top of each other. Both sections and elevations provide vertical measurements, but sections show what’s hidden inside walls and floors, while elevations only show the finished surface you’d actually see.
Elevations are purely about the visible face. No internal structure, no hidden framing, no plumbing behind the wall. Just what meets the eye from a straight-on viewpoint.
Scale and Dimensions
Elevation drawings are always drawn to a specific scale so that every measurement can be taken accurately. For residential projects, 1/4 inch equals 1 foot is a common scale. Larger commercial buildings might use 1/8 inch equals 1 foot to fit the entire facade on a single sheet. Detail areas that need closer attention, like a decorative entryway, might be drawn at 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch equals 1 foot.
Dimension lines on an elevation typically call out floor-to-floor heights, window head and sill heights, the top of the roof ridge, and the distance from grade to the first floor. A note on the drawing establishes the baseline elevation, often set at a round number like 100 feet 0 inches as a reference point, with all other heights measured up or down from there. The key rule for anyone reading these drawings: never measure directly off the paper with a ruler. Always use the written dimensions, since printing and copying can distort the scale.
Why Elevations Matter in Practice
Elevations serve different audiences at the same time. For a homeowner or client, they’re the clearest picture of what the finished building will look like from the outside. For a contractor, they specify exactly where to place windows, what materials to order, and how high to build each wall. For a building department reviewing permits, they confirm the structure meets zoning requirements for height, setbacks, and neighborhood compatibility.
A complete set of architectural drawings typically includes four exterior elevations (one per side), plus interior elevations for any rooms with detailed wall features. Together with floor plans and sections, they give everyone involved a full three-dimensional understanding of the building using only two-dimensional drawings.