Building Abbreviation: How to Write Bldg.

The building abbreviation and how it is formed

Bldg. follows a pattern many English abbreviations use: keep the key consonants and drop the vowels. B, L, D and G are enough for a reader to know the word at a glance. Other short forms built the same way include dept. for department and mgmt. for management. The how to abbreviate page lays out the common shortening patterns.

Abbreviation for building in an address

In an address, the building goes on the street line after the street, or on its own line above it when the address is long. It works the same way as a suite or apartment number.

The postal service lists BLDG as its standard short form and prefers capital letters without periods for machine sorting. In a letter, an invitation or a résumé, Bldg. with a capital B and a period reads better. Either way, put the building number before any suite or room number, since you find the building first and then the room.

Where else you will see bldg.

• Campus and base maps: "Admin Bldg.," "Science Bldg. 2."
• Work orders and maintenance tickets: "Leak reported in Bldg. C, Rm. 114."
• Floor plans and construction drawings: "Bldg. footprint" and "bldg. height" in notes.
• Insurance and property forms: a box for the number of bldgs. on a lot.
• Badges and directories: "Bldg. 7, 3rd Fl."

In ordinary sentences, it is better to write the full word. "We met outside the building" reads more smoothly than "outside the bldg." Save the short form for addresses, labels, charts and tight spaces.

Capital letters, periods and plurals

• Capitalize inside a name or an address: Bldg. 9, Engineering Bldg.
• Lowercase in notes and tables: "3 bldgs. on site."
• Period: standard in American writing. Leave it off only in postal style or when a form says so.
• Plural: add an s before the period, bldgs. Do not write bldg's, since the apostrophe shows ownership, not more than one.

A building number can be a numeral or a letter. Both work: Bldg. 2 or Bldg. B. Use whatever the property manager or campus uses on its signs.

Examples in sentences

• "Deliveries go to Bldg. 3, the loading dock is in back."
• "The fire drill covers all bldgs. on the north campus."
• "Please list the bldg. number on the visitor log."
• "New hire training is in the Admin Bldg., Room 210."
• "The permit lists two bldgs. on the parcel."

Look alikes and related short forms

Bldg. sits close to a few other address words on forms, and people mix them up:

• Blvd. means boulevard, a type of street, not a building. See the boulevard abbreviation page.
• Ste. is a suite, a unit inside a building.
• Apt. is an apartment. See the apartment abbreviation.
• Dept. is a department, a group of people rather than a structure.

Our common abbreviations page has dozens more everyday short forms like these.