A method and apparatus for partitioning a block to permit the encoding or decoding of a video sequence includes partitioning the block using a split-to-square partition pattern, a horizontal binary tree partition pattern, or a horizontal ternary tree partition pattern to generate a set of sub-blocks, wherein a same priority is allocated to the split-to-square partition pattern, the horizontal binary tree partition pattern, and the horizontal ternary tree partition pattern such that the split-to-square partition pattern may be used before, after, or interleaved with the horizontal binary tree partition pattern and the horizontal ternary tree partition pattern. Encoding or decoding the video sequence is performed based on partitioning the block using the split-to-square partition pattern, the horizontal binary tree partition pattern, or the horizontal ternary tree partition pattern.