From The Craftsman. August 1912

A NEW ARCHITECTURE IN A NEW LAND

By Eloise Roorbach

The great truths that have inspired, encouraged and steadily guided mankind upward, those that have shaped and controlled the momentous issues of life, have been given in the simplest form. And they have remained in their original purity because of their essential simplicity, compelling the attention of the most careless and enlightening the wise. Primitive man, striving to express his emotions, used a straight line as a symbol of greatness, grandeur or nobility, for he caught the significance of the horizon against the sky. The arch he copied from the dome of the heavens, and the triangle of mystery was revealed in the migratory flight of birds. The circle was his sign for motion or progression, seized by him when a flying stone touched passive waters.

When modern man finds that he has become so entangled in the whirl of life that his sense of beauty and proportion is becoming confused and complex, that his inspiration is uncertain and his expression halting, then if greatness is in him he returns to the remedial strength of the primitive. This is especially true in regard to modern American architecture, for our architects have become confused by the inordinate demands of their patrons for something original, striking, distinctive, and are madly rushing hither and thither over the face of the world, hunting for fresh inspiration, plagiarizing openly, seeking in pitiable ways to disguise poverty of idea by overornamentation. In their craze to build something original they have been known to construct an entire house of cobblestones (a perfect imitation of peanut brittle) in Colonial lines, with a Moorish red tile roof and an Italian garden in front entered through a Japanese gateway!

In the West, where man not only dares to be honest but is encouraged in every way to express himself, there has arisen a simpler and more distinctive architecture. One architect of the Coast, Irving J. Gill, after wandering for years among the inspired work of the past--Grecian, Roman, Italian early English--groping hopefully through the maze that every architect is forced by custom and education to thread, dissatisfied with the best that he could produce and convinced of the absurdity and dishonesty of plagiarism, has had the courage to throw aside every accepted belief of the present day and start afresh with the simplest forms, the straight line, the arch, the cube and the circle. And he uses these without ornamentation, save for the natural grace of a clinging vine that is allowed to trail about a doorway or droop over the severe line of the rood. Instead of delving into the past works of great men, trying to adapt what has been to the conditions of the present, he bends his efforts to determine what should be, regardless of precedent. By this return to fundamental needs, he has hit upon an architecture so simple and beautiful that restless tourists, practical business men, workmen, architects and artists turn aside from their work or play on the highway, just for the pleasure of seeing so satisfying a thin as a house of his designing.

The homes are so free from all ornamentation that they become the center of interest wherever they are placed, just as a simple child free from coquetry and dissembling, delights the eye and touches the heart while it unconsciously shames the artificiality of diplomats and censures the worldlings dwarfed by hoarding other men's wisdom.

When Mr. Gill began his work he started with a mere cube as a basis, put a slight overhang to his roofs, let the beams appear in the ceiling and projected the fireplace into the room. But growing more courageous as he saw that the less he departed from the pure cube the more beautiful his work became, he finally eliminated even these simple structural ornaments and built his walls flush with the roof, with baseboards, casings and wainscots flush with the walls.

The accompanying illustrations show the ground plan and several views of some model cottages recently built by Mr. Gill for Mr. F. B. Lewis at Sierra Madre, California, which furnish a lesson in practicability, originality and beauty. They are little more than cubes set, not above one another as must unfortunately be done in a city, but side by side along the line of a town square, so that their external walls form a continuous line of a town square, so that their external walls form a continuous line on the north and west sides of the square, leaving the south and east open to the sun. The whole faces inward on little gardens that merge in one large garden in the middle of the square. Each cottage is entered through a loggia that serves as a lounging room by day and a sleeping porch by night. These cottages or flats as they are called were designed for the convenience and comfort of workingmen with small families, and are built with inviable substantial and sanitary features. They are made with solid concrete foundations, side walls and roofs of hollow tile, the roofs reinforced with steel and covered with asbestos. The finish inside and out is cement plaster to which a moisture-proof preparation has been applied to insure perfect dryness during the rainy season. From the entrance loggia a small hall fitted with a coat closet leads to the living and dining room and to the bedroom and bathroom.

One feature which distinguishes these cottages and all the houses of Mr. Gill's designing is that the walls are finished flush with the casings, and the line between wall and floor is slightly rounded so that it forms one continuous piece. There is no place in such a house for dirt or dust to lodge, or draught to enter, or mice or vermin of any kind to exist. The fireplaces with raised concrete hearth are indented, and the built-in window-seats are of cement covered with removable leather cushions.

These houses are the acme of sanitary building and are practically indestructible, resisting the ravages of time, fire and storm. Every modern convenience has been placed so cleverly that not an inch of space has been wasted. The woodwork of the kitchen is perfectly plain, no beveling or paneling to catch dust, and the drainboards are of magnesite, forming one continuous piece with the walls and sink, thus preventing the accumulation of grease and dirt that is so often the breeding place for bad odors and unsanitary conditions generally.

All the walls are white and smooth, devoid of ornament, and they fairly grow with reflected color from the gardens. The green of trees, blue of sky, red, yellow, pink and mauve of flowers, are all caught upon walls and ceilings which gleam and glisten with the opalescent beauty of a pearl shell. They change with the hour of the day and the mood of the seasons, so that there is always the fascination of a beauty that is alive and responsive, and these plain white walls become the background for a wonderful fairylike pageant of color. So each day weaves its record in fragile tapestries on the walls left bare to receive them. The marvelous power of white walls to absorb the color is one of the chief charms of these houses. The owner of such a house, though agreeing with Mr. Gill that a pure white wall unadorned is a perfect thing, experimented neverthelessly by decorating it with frescoes, only to discover that they detract from its beauty by depriving it of power to reflect various colors, and the walls were soon restored to their pristine simplicity with a coat of dull white paint.

Children cannot hurt a house built after this fashion, and the effect of so simple and lovely an environment upon a child cannot be overestimated, for it would be instrumental in shaping the whole course of life and permanently influencing taste. EACH little house has a garden plot of its own leading to a central pergola where all tenants may meet for general social intercourse. The pergola is constructed of concrete pillars and eucalyptus beams and is thirty-seven feet square. There is a central space for a lounging room, where rustic tables and chairs are invitingly placed, and the outer corners sheltered by vines are fitted with hammocks and swinging couches. Vines that will eventually form a green roof have been planted; but because it is all new yet and vines have not had time to roof it in, palm leaves have been woven in and out of the eucalyptus frame which, though only serving a temporary purpose, are as picturesque as useful.

These cottages prove that any deviation from simplicity results in a loss of dignity, that ornamentation tends to cheapen rather than to enrich, and that art lies in elimination, in balance, proportion, in honesty and fearlessness. Ornamentation as seen on most of the houses today represents fear; the designer dare not leave it off, dare not depart from custom, dare not be simple. The Missions of California are beautiful because their builders could not be honest.

They had not the time, tools or skill to cover with ornament or cut up into angles, so their works stand with undisputed dignity and superiority among the ornate, bizarre structures that now companion them. They cannot be overlooked or forgotten because their extreme simplicity holds the eye, resting and gratifying it, making an indelible impression of power and repose.

The houses that Mr. Gill designs stand so preëminently for permanence in their simplicity that they can no more disregarded than the Missions, and are as surely influencing the architecture of the West. They are so unmistakably suited to that sunny land that they have been selected as models for a whole town. Mr. Gill has been commissioned to build an entire industrial village, the first thing of its kind ever attempted in America. The factories that are to make the tile and pottery, those for cutlery, the administration buildings, workingmen's cottages, schools, streets, parks, children's playgrounds, have all been designed by Mr. Gill and are now being constructed under his supervision, so that for practicality, permanence and beauty this village will be without an equal.

From The Architectural Record. December 1913

Men have succeeded in building pleasing and livable homes in all sorts of seemingly impossible places, such as on wind-swept mesas, in sun-baked deserts, in lands of eternal snows and in fever-poisoned swamps, but it has taken California to produce a man with imagination brilliant enough to build a home in an apartment house. All real homes have gardens and privacy, individuality and domestic atmosphere~~virtues foreign to apartment houses in general. Some apartment houses have the excellent qualities of being conveniently located, cleverly economical of space, lavish as to dumb waiters and elevators. But they have a most distressing way of introducing a brick wall where a view ought to be and a diabolical way of shutting away the fresh air and sunshine. They huddle people together in crates, as it were, and pile them one above another as if human beings were trapped pigeons remorselessly being shipped to market. They are uncomfortably reminiscent of the cramped compartments of Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, the Catacombs of Rome, the Cave Dwelling of Arizona.

These buildings of California have drawn the opposite poles of human habitations~~a home and an apartment~~into one aesthetic and practical unit, embodying the best characteristics of each. They consist of separate houses with separate entrances, exits, halls and gardens, placed side by side as flowers are placed in one garden. The interest of all the small homes focuses in one large central garden which in turn centers in a pergola that is partly covered by vines so that it provides shade or warm sunny seats as preferred, at the different seasons or hours of the day. The separate houses are built around the four sides of a city square. Back of each house is a private garden. Back of the private garden is the central one with its immense pergola and attractive planting.

The whole plan is strikingly original as to treatment of a given space, style of architecture, and construction. It is fireproof, almost indestructible, and absolutely sanitary. It is beautiful in design. It is simplicity carried to the last word in architectural art. These garden apartment homes occupy a plot of ground 250x200 feet, at the foot of Mt. Wilson in Sierra Madre. Each home has been designed so that not only do all the windows frame a view of the San Gabriel Valley, but they furnish a picture to all who live in the valley. Their white, vine-draped walls, dappled by massed colors of the garden flowers, softly silhouetted against the dark green of the Sierra Madre mountains can be seen from all over the valley.

The architect, Irving J. Gill, with the courage on an explorer in untraveled country, has boldly returned to architectural first principles~~the line, square and circle. He has not only returned to them, but has not departed one jot or tittle from that old, old vantage ground. Not a single excrescence commonly known as ornament, disturbs the serenity of these first principles. He has daringly relied upon the eternally forceful and attractive laws of contrast to furnish the beauty and charm. He has artfully embodied the permanent principles in the straight line and circle, then starts the impermanent principle embodied in the vines and creepers, to move across the face of the buildings graciously breaking their severity. The result has placed him in the front rank of those who design for beauty and construct for permanence.

Each cottage is entered through a loggia, walled on the outside, but facing into the garden so that it can be used for a sleeping room at night and a lounging room by day. From this cheerful room or court is the hallway which gives entrance to the living and dining room and also into the bedroom and bath. they are constructed of hollow tile and concrete, reinforced with steel and covered with asbestos. the inside and outside is finished with the best of cement plaster, treated with a moisture-proof preparation which insures perfect dryness at all seasons.

The feature that makes these homes so exceptionally sanitary is the treatment of the interior walls and floors. The walls and the floors are of cement, one rounding into the other so that it is vermin and draught proof. the bath tubs and kitchen sinks are sunk in magnesite, finished flush with the concrete walls. There is not a chance for the slyest of germs to lodge anywhere. no grease can collect. The casings are finished flush with the walls, so that dust has no chance to lodge and defile the air. the electric wiring is in conduits. The fireplaces are indented.

The gardens comprise a series of terraces faced with rough stone. The pergola is of concrete pillars with a eucalyptus frame. Seats and hammocks, tables and chairs offer every comfort as one rests and looks up to the mountains or out over the valley. The floor plan of these cottages, known as the Lewis cottages, shows how the ground has been divided as only California can afford to divide ground~~devoting more space to the garden than to the house. This is because people regard the outdoors as being a better place to live, work and play than the four walls of a room.

Seven of these houses are finished and planted and the other five are in process of construction. Beside the private entrances to each house there are four others leading from the street to the center of the whole place. These are mainly to secure vistas of beauty, for Mr. Gill never fails to plan for pictures. Every arch of his gateways, doorways, walls or windows is placed to frame a picture. He insists that pictures as well as gardens must be a part of every dwelling. The garden is so essential a feature of his homes that he includes the designing of them in the house plan and this should be the case with every architect. Garden and House are one and indivisible in his mind Not only this, but he makes the garden take a second blooming upon the walls of the rooms. This is accomplished by the quality of the inner wall surface~~his own secret. It catches the garden colors and spreads them out, indistinctly formed, on wall and ceiling until the rooms seem to be overlaid with mother-of-pearl, only softer and shifting, as if sentient. The living and growing garden exists as a charmingly real thing out in the sunshine. Its spirit dwells within the home.

The same plan of an apartment house that is like a home, with an open fire-place, a separate entrance and garden, in addition to a general garden, has been tried in San Diego, modified in some ways. The San Diego apartment houses are known as the Darst Buildings. The floor plan shows that a generous garden space has been allotted by Mr. Gill for each home. Each apartment has a lawn bordered with flowers, its own outdoor store-house. Arched walls and pergolas, overrun with creepers and festooned with vines, connect all the paths, walks, terraces and patios into one attractive whole. These flats, if such a name can be applied to anything so home-like, were planned to house human beings in a home-like, attractive way. They are so very like homes that nothing but the necessity of a trip "back east" or a tour of the world, can ever persuade a tenant to vacate. As a business venture, The construction of apartment houses that have all the atmosphere of a home is a decided success. Beauty is recognized nowadays as a significant business asset to seriously reckoned with.

The plans of the different apartments are excellent, for they are wonderfully convenient. The balcony overlooking the the gardens is variously used for a sleeping porch, sewing room, trunk room, study or smoking den. The interior finish is the same as in the Lewis cottages~~the woodwork flush with the walls, tubs and sink sunk in magnesite so that dust and germs have no chance for existence here.

That man who bitterly complained that it would take "all the eyes of Argus and all the clubs of Hercules" to make as architect build a house that was perfectly planned and perfectly constructed, would never have penned his growls of rage could he have had the good fortune to have founded his home in California. For here the architects (some of them, at least) do not need watching to make them plan conveniently, nor is any club required to make them build practically and well, to construct a house with no architectural deceits. The modern architect is a combination of men possessed of various odds and ends of knowledge. He knows about the endurance of materials, the intimate ways of home life, about the need of linen closets and kitchen pantries, about how to make little children and tired men happy and comfortable, about the vines that creep daintily and those that riot luxuriantly, about the flowers that thrive in patios and those that prefer the sunny outdoors. He is a dreamer, poet, naturalist as well as a draughtsman and builder. These two apartment homes prove this, for it took a dreamer's imagination to conceive them. They are comfortable and convenient to live in and beautiful to look at. Their construction has been personally supervised, so that neither time, fire nor storm can destroy them.

From The Craftsman Magazine. July 1913

"OUTDOOR" LIFE IN CALIFORNIA HOUSES, AS EXPRESSED IN THE NEW ARCHITECTURE OF IRVING J. GILL

BY ELOISE ROORBACH

In the West the court is the center of the home life. It is usually considered the first essential of a home plan, and when people who live in California begin to put on paper their cherished dream of a home, nine times out of ten they first draw a square, saying: "This is to be the court." Then around the square they add as many rooms as their fancy suggests or purse permits. But they must have opportunity for outdoor life, a sequestered place in the open air where they can serve their meals, receive their guests, sleep within sight of the stars or take a midday siesta.

In the friendly climate of the Pacific Coast the blossoms, vines and fountains that are considered essential parts of the court form a fairyland setting for children. Delightful opportunity is afforded for an open-air kindergarten and schoolroom, a sewing room and a study. Around the sides often runs a pillared walk, suggesting the cloistered paths of monasteries and reminiscent of earlier times in the history of California.

It would be difficult to imagine a more interesting example of a house built around a court than one recently completed in San Diego for Henry H. Timkin. This house sets a new standard for home-building. It embodies the most advanced ideas of design and construction. The desire of some home-makers for perfect simplicity of design, combined with a substantial form of construction, has in this house been fully realized. Not a single ornament mars the pure symmetry of its lines.

A home like the Timkin house would be full of suggestion to any community. Even the people who at the first glance scoff because of its unusual simplicity come to see that it is a sincere expression of the architect's purpose; its lines are classic and pure, dignified and rare, and most home-lovers soon grow to prefer it to the more ornate structures to which they have been accustomed. A house of this type helps to form the taste of all who behold it, whether they are aware of it or not, and its influence cannot easily be estimated.

There are several points about the construction of this particular house that deserve especial attention. In the first place its deliberate simplicity cannot possibly the overlooked. It compels attention. It calls to mind Schiller's observation that "The artist may be known rather by what he omits." The architect, Irving J. Gill, with pioneer courage resolved to go back to certain fixed principles like the sine, square and cube, and to build from them with as little deviation as possible, omitting everything useless from a structural point of view. He came to see great beauty in straight lines. He grew to love them, to combine and recombine them, and to merge them. He studied the charm that lies in perspective and applied it to his lines of roof, walk and wall. He saw that ornament was a non-essential. So he determined to make his houses depend for their beauty entirely upon the relation of line to line, of surface to surface, proportion to proportion, and then plant vines and flowers to furnish decoration.

The simplicity of design embodied in this unusual house is equaled only by the unpretentiousness of its construction. It is almost indestructible and withstands successfully the devastating forces of time, water and fire, and the unwelcome inroads of rats, mice and other vermin. the interior construction helps to solve the dust problem, for all the woodwork is finished flush with the walls and all the doors are made without panels, and hung flush with the casings. The drain boards and the sink back are of magnesite, a material that can be given a very smooth finish and is impervious to water. the sink is sunk into this magnetite, which is in turn sunk into the cement walls; all the corners and joints are rounded, so that is perfectly sanitary. There are no cracks where grease or dirt can collect, no exposed woodwork to be come sour and unwholesome. The floors and wainscoting of the porches, toilets and bathrooms are also made of magnesite. The bathtub is boxed an covered with this same material up to the porcelain, so that in the bathroom as in the kitchen there can be no unpleasant dampness and decay, and it can easily be kept clean. The floors of the loggias and the inner court are laid in 12-by-12 red brick tile with wide mortar joints. Girders of gas pipe support a copper wire screen overhead, which protects the court from the intrusion of life and other winged insects.

The construction of this house also makes possible a much-needed return to home privacy. A wall built as part of the house completely encircles the garden and lawn: the dust of the street is kept out to great extent, and the garden is protected from sweeping winds. In this land, whose history is so romantically colored with Spanish and Mission influence, a walled garden is especially at home.

Several views of the court which reveal the delight of this feature as a home center are given here. the full light of day brightens it, the stars look in at night, the moon floods it with mystery. The windows of the upper rooms look down into its center, where a fountain splashes musically and flowers exhale sweet fragrance. Creeping vines which will soon trace delicate patterns of green around the concrete pillars have been planted, and potted plants are placed here and there, and changed as they pass the time of blooming. Ferns grow on the shady side, sun-loving plants on the other sides, Through the south windows of this court the lawn and garden with the lily-pool and fountain in the center can be seen. On the west side of the garden, separated from the lawn by a hedge of green, is a kitchen garden. The stepping-stone paths are made to four 8-inch tiles set together with wide mortar joints, making 18- inch squares, which are laid far enough apart to permit the grass to grow between and form a frame of green for each square.

The garden wall is of concrete, of the architect has planned to make the house and every detail of its a harmonious and as permanent as possible. the large buttresses are hollow and filled with soil in which trailing vines and blossoming plants are growing. The white wall reflects the colors of the surrounding flowers, the blue of the sky, the green of the grass; there is always a lovely play of color on its while surface as the sun passes over it. It make an ideal background for flowers of many hues, blue delphinium, scarlet hollyhocks, feathery cosmos, pink or yellow roses. Against the south wall is cold-frame for the growing-season dainties.

A glance at the floor plan shows another interesting feature of this home, the children's court. Here they may have their own garden and their outdoor nursery. In this sheltered nook the baby takes his nap. On stormy days he plays or sleeps in the inner court, so that his life is practically spent out of doors. The floor plant also shows that the dinning and sitting rooms are almost a continuation of the court, so pen are they to its sun shine. Both of these rooms have the added comfort and cheerfulness afforded by open fires.

From The Western Architect. April 1913

CELEBRATING SIMPLICITY IN ARCHITECTURE

By E. Roorbach

"And above all there will no uncharacteristic or tarnished or vulgar decoration permissible, ornament being for the most part structural or necessary," says Walter Pater in his famous essay on "Style" when speaking of the literature that is to form and to maintain the literary ideal. These words apply with equal force to the architecture that is to form and maintain the architectural idea. In fact this essay studied by literary aspirants as zealously as a theological student studies the Bible, could be read and re-read by architectural candidates to good advantage for what this distinguished analysis of pure style declares to be an essential of good literature is also found to be an artchitectural essential. He cautions the student of literature to "dread surplusage, as the runner on his muscles" declaring all art to " consist but in the removal of surplusage." He says that the very name ornament indicates that it is a non-essential. That self-restraint, a skilled economy of means, is a great element of beauty. He warns against the use of flourishes or ornaments because of the "narcotic force" of them "upon the negligent intelligence to which any diversion is welcome." He advises "an architectural conception of work which foresees the end in the beginning and never loses sight of it."

Whoever has read this eloquent plea for simplicity, for a pure form of literature, will no doubt find it coming to his remembrance when they see for the first time a house recently completed in San Diego for Henry F. Timkin. The architect, Irving J. Gill, has by strict devotion to pure form, by an elimination of all ornament not "structural or necessary" created an architectural classic. He has celebrated simplicity as it is seldom celebrated in architecture, not only in this house but in much of his other work. He ha created a form of architecture that attracts immediate attention because of its beauty and originality. It is true that many people unused to such severity of form do not like it. This is to be expected, for the general public has become habituated to the "narcotic" effect of over-ornamentation and object to being deprived of it.

On the other side there are many, many who see in it a return to a purer art, to a more classic beauty. To them it means the arrival of a higher standard. It hints of the future when architecture will be fine, chaste, dignified, substantial, rather than showy, ostentatious, shoddy. In the world of literature some people prefer doggerel to sonnets. In the architectural world some people prefer showy to the choice.

Mr. Gill seeing the need of a better architecture both aesthetically and practically, determined to go back to the fundamental things and start afresh from them. He began to study the fixed principle of the line, the square, the cube. He let them occupy his mind, absorb his thought. He experimented with them, arranged and re-arranged them. He saw that these simple things were wonderful, saw the magnitude of them, came to see their great beauty, took joy in emphasizing them. He realized that these things were the most impressive things in nature, so he began to build his houses from these models, departing as little as possible from them, accenting them in fact by using one as a foil to the other. He studied the principle of surfaces, of light and shade, of perspective, playing with them, composing them together over and over, until he has constructed by the laws of counterpart, as it were, an architectural fugue. (How many houses do we see that resemble an architectural ragtime?)

His idea of ornament is that it should never be fixed, conventionalized or standardized. He says that this age is coming to demand standardization of all possible working things, machinery, tools, etc. But it is impossible to standardize ornament, to fix its limits, legislate its rules. So for the decoration of all his houses he plans vines and creepers just where they will grow in their own inimitable way and soften the edge of the roof, design the scroll at the doorway, outline an arch, etch the pillars with green, run along the wall and unite it with the house. The festoons, wreaths, corbels, arabesques, frescoes of his houses are all the artistic work of living vines and creepers. The contrast between the studied, structural severity of the house and the informal, impromptu grace of the vines, forms one of the most noteworthy features of his houses giving them a great individuality and a great beauty.

As to the construction of this house. The walls are two inches by two inches studs, placed sixteen inches on centers, with sheathing and building paper, lattice and plaster on the outside, lath and plaster on the inside. The foundations are of concrete. The outer walls are water-proofed. A special feature of this house is that the interior woodwork is finished flush with the walls in every part of the house. All doors whether leading from room to room or into the cupboards and closets, are without panels and made flush with the casings. This makes an almost dust proof home which lightens the house work to a considerable degree. The drain boards and back of sinks are of magnesite, a cementing material which finishes very smoothly and is impervious to water. This magnesite is finished flush with the walls and the corners where it meets the sink are rounded so that there is no crack for grease or dirt to collect, no exposed wood to become sour and to decay. The old time sinks were never perfectly sanitary, never clean as the present household economy demands.

The bath tub is boxed and then covered with the magnesite up to the porcelain tub and finished with the rounding corners as in the kitchen sink. The floors of the bath rooms are of magnesite and all angles are rounded. Thus it is easily kept clean and wholesome. There are no corners and no projections in the whole house so that it is the acme of modern sanitary construction.

The court and the loggia floors are twelve-inch by twelve-inch red brick tile finished with a wide mortar joint. The inside walls are tinted the most delicate gray, an almost invisible gray, and the ceilings chalk white. This gives all possible choice for the reflection of colors on the walls which forms such an unusual and attractive feature of all of Mr. Gill's houses. The colors of the flowers of the garden, the green of the grass, the varying tints of the sky, are reflected upon the walls of the rooms with the intensified charm of beauty and color always felt in reflections. The flame of poppies, scarlet of geraniums, blue of larkspurs, all the rainbow colors of the garden pass in turn along the walls. A bit of metal, a fold of drapery in the room becomes mirrored softly among the garden colors as the sun enters the room and touches them. This rainbow play of color is especially noticeable in the portico and court where the greater light gives them added brilliance and they can be seen in the shadows. The power of reflection which gives these a rooms so great and lovely a charm is brought about by the texture of the surface-the ordinary white plaster wall does not in any way give the same effect. Because of the treatment, which is distinctly Mr. Gill's own method, there is always a soft glow in the rooms. The rooms tinted with delicate pastel shades one hour, become irridescent at another, are dove gray overlaid with rose at another. To live in such a room is almost like living on the inside of an opal or in the heart of a flower.

The large court as can be seen by the floor plan, is in reality the family living room, the center of the home life. An overhead copper wire screen keeps out the flies. Vines have been planted which will soon wreath the pillars and trail from the bridge-supports of the large screen. Ferns and flowers are growing in this outdoor room, potted plants are placed in sun and shade as they prefer, a fountain splashes musically from the center. A more homelike, charming room it would be difficult to find. These open air rooms are coming to be the best part of the new California domestic architecture. People demand these wholesome outdoor rooms in which they may work and play and rest. The dining table is spread in this flowery enclosure, the baby sleeps here sheltered from winds. It is at all times the center of interest and comfort. At one side of this large court as can be seen by the floor plan, is a smaller court for the children's exclusive use, where they may play or plant a garden to their heart's content.

Another interesting feature of this home is the walled garden. The wall itself is an unusual one. The large buttresses are hollow and filled with earth so that vines can grow from them and drape the walls with green. Flowering plants also add their glow of color. A kitchen garden has been planted on the west side and separated from the lawn by a blossoming hedge. A stepping-stone path runs around the whole planted garden. This path is made of four eight-inch tile held together by a wide mortar joint. This makes a square eighteen inches. These squares are separated by the grass. They remind one of the stepping stones that enable one to cross a little brook in safety.

FROM HOUSE BEAUTIFUL. September, 1914

A HOUSE OF INDIVIDUALITY

By Eloise Roorbach

In Pasadena, Cal., is a house suggestive of a classic simplicity destined to be more universal as time goes on. Passers-by are invariably attracted to its unusual style, some in scorn of its poverty of ornament, others with joy of its exceeding purity of line and unadorned daring of design. It is difficult to describe such a house, to impress the picture of it upon the minds accustomed to overhanging eaves, projecting beams, tile roofs and mixed types of architecture. To do it justice one should be in command of an original series of words and many synonyms of the word "simplicity". Both inside and out, it is absolutely free of ornamentation, with the result that instead of lacking in character, it conveys an exceptional originality and distinction. there are none of the "flourishes added on", suggestive of the curliques children delight in when learning to write, and of which they are so proud, foolishly imagining them to be full of beauty and grace.

This house was designed and built for Mrs. Paul Miltimore by Irving J. Gill, of San Diego, and embodies a welcome step towards a future requirement of architecture~~that of a wholly sympathetic relation of architect and client. A home is, above all other things, a medium of self-expression. It frequently happens that an architect is unable or willing to materialize his client's ideas and desires, or else that the client, having no definite knowledge of what he really wants, trusts blindly to the architect. The result is that the personality and taste of the dweller is completely masked by the fad style of the architect. A most irritating vulgarity of a house is the result.

In this instance the owner outlined to the designer her ideal of a home and he, with practical knowledge, embodied it. She wanted a house of such extreme simplicity that she would be able, if she so desired, to do her own housework, without the necessity of spending all the daylight hours scrubbing, sweeping and putting in order; one that would be beautiful, convenient, substantial, homelike. She well knew that the "beautiful rests on the foundation of the necessary", that a home, in order to be a place to live in and work in, must combine as a unit the beautiful and the needful. The kitchen must be as livable a place as the drawing- room, and no part of the house must be for looks only, but for daily use. to bring these needs in one relation requires "something new under the sun", for as generally constructed a house as large as this one requires the unremitting energy of several people to keep it clean.

The problem was solved in this wise: The wainscoting, door and window casements, sills and cupboards, in fact every bit of the woodwork in the house, is made flush with the walls, the doors that give entrance to the house, those that connect the rooms, even those of the closets and cupboards, are also flush with the walls and apparently of one piece, for they are free from panelings of any sort. Thus the necessity of ceaseless dusting has been done away with, there being no projecting ledge for it to lodge upon. The sink, drainboards and back are of one piece, for the porcelain sink is sunk in magnesite that is not only flush with it but joins the walls with rounding corners. Grease and microbes have thus been outwitted~~there is no dark corner in which to collect and hide. This same sanitary plan has been carried out in the bathroom, for the tub is sunk in what appears to be a solid block of masonry. It is the same material~~magnesite~~which is used in the kitchen and is also rounded into the walls. No moisture can collect, become sour and unwholesome or cause disfigurement of the walls. All floors are hardwood, the furniture light in weight and simple of line, easy to dust and to move; the curtains and draperies are washable. the interior finish is Oregon Pine, flush in every instance with the plaster, then painted and enameled. With this flush construction the door jams are of three pieces, instead of the customary eighteen, the window frames are cut in four pieces in place of the usual thirty-two.

The house is roofed with composition roofing made of three-ply felt mopped with asphalt and covered with gravel. It is perfectly flat. a large skylight is inserted over the stairway in the hall and one over the oratory. The foundations are of concrete down to the hardpan, the exterior walls are two by four-inch studs, sixteen inches on centers with seven-eights sheathing, lattice lath and plaster on the outside. the floors of the terrace are twelve by twelve-inch tile. The exterior plaster is covered with two coats of well-tested waterproof coating. the exterior woodwork is painted a verde green.

As to the shape and color of the exterior~~it is of the purest of white stucco in the form of a cube with no overhang to the roof, windows or doors. the walls being of one unbroken line, convey an extraordinary effect of height and size, for there are no boundaries to set exact limitations to the eyes. The chimneys are without caps, of the same material as the house, so that there are none of the marked differences of color and material that commonly break up the main, large lines of a house into petty proportions. Pergolas of concrete pillars and rough-hewn timbers (over which vines will soon be climbing, for it is all new now) act as a connecting link with the garden. Oak trees have been allowed to remain in their natural outspreading form, the beams and pillars of the pergola being adapted to their curves. thus they will aid the vines of the future in forming a roof of living green, a grateful protection from the noon-day brightness.

The most original feature of this house is the play of color upon its white surface. Twactman has shown us in his picture of snow that a field of white fairly glows with color and brilliancy. these white walls, as they catch the sun, present the same dazzling kaleidoscopic color seen in a field of snow, but with none of its sense of coldness or hardness. The surface becomes iridescent when the sun moves across it. the texture that makes this charm is Mr. Gill's discovery and secret. An ordinary, painted wall in nowise gives such a display of color. Twilight makes the house a tender mauve, sunset spreads a warm glow of rose, dawn touches with gray, noontide lights with yellow. It seems lit with an inner light at times, as a flame in an alabaster vase. Every color of the garden is in turn reflected against the sensitive surface with the changing position of the sun.

The rich blue of larkspurs, delicate blue of forget-me-nots, yellow of daffodils or nasturtiums, red of poppies or roses are caught in the pure white space created on purpose to receive them and glow with the bewitching magic of reflected color. The house takes on the liquid, luminous quality of a pearl shell. the interior of the house catches and reflects color as marvelously as the exterior with still another quality--that of perspective. Colors run the whole gamut of tones and overtones in the rooms, brilliant near the windows and melting into their own characteristic mellowness in the shadows.

An artist dwelling in such a house would catch graduations of color never dreamed of before. Color runs prismatically over the walls, resolving constantly into ever-changing harmonies--an immense improvement over the usual monotonous wall-papers, tinted plasters and other conventional finishes. This ever-new wall decoration is lovelier than any picture that can be hung upon it. This lovely charm of changing color cannot be dwelt upon too strongly, for it is something entirely new in home ornamentation. A profusion of things pinned or hung upon the walls, centers the mind upon those things and upon all the associations attendant upon the acquiring of them. So the mind continually turns over the emotions and the events of the past. These wall spaces, where new play of color is the only ornament, turn the mind into itself and give it an opportunity for discovery of new realms of thought. A more simple living would result from dwelling for a time in such a house. If houses were to be given descriptive names, as the Indians christen people, such as "Laughing Water," "Scarface," etc., many houses would be forced to bear the names of "Monstrous," "Love-of -Show." This house would be called "Purity," for freshness and simplicity characterize its design, construction, and color.

Another thing that distinguishes this house as being different from the old order of houses is that every detail of its construction has been watched over and personally superintended by the architect. therein does this architect's work, not only in this but all other houses, remind one of the master builders of old, the ancient guilds of handicraft, the days when a more noble dignity was accorded craftsmanship than in these days of hurry, cheapness, careless workmanship.

One other thing is different about this home, and that is that it was formally blessed and consecrated, as every home in every land should be, either formally or informally. a little oratory has been built at one end of the mother's bedroom, raised a trifle from the floor and curtained from the casual sight. Such a home, constructed and ordered upon the basis of the utmost sincerity, makes for the ideal home where there will be, as Henry James says, "Things blissfully few and adorably good."

From House Beautiful. February 1921

A California House of Distinguished Simplicity

Which exemplifies the Novel Ideas in Design, Construction and Decoration Held by the Architect, Irving J. Gill

By ELOISE ROORBACH

on one of the gentle slopes of the hills which girdle Hollywood, California, stands this beautiful house banked with masses of flowers. The white walls are splashed with the graceful shadows cast by the long fronds of cocoa plumosa palms. Across the front is a broad expanse of lawn, and at the back is a lovely walled garden in which are a pool and a tiled fountain. This house though unmistakably Californian, nevertheless exemplifies certain bold and novel ideas in design, construction and decoration that make it notable, even in this land where originality in architecture is to be expected. The wide valleys, lofty mountains, intensely blue sky, brilliantly colored flowers and semi-tropic trees, permit a romantic freshness in architecture that would be out of place in the more established East. This house holds to the Spanish spirit so far as the plain walls, arches and patios are concerned and thus is in harmony with the romantic inheritance of the West; but in all else it is distinctly modern.

Irving J. Gill, the architect of this house, has built many homes and "garden-apartment" houses in Southern California, and in every one of them are embodied advanced convictions of simplicity. This house, built for Walter Luther Dodge, is a typical "Gill" house, for in it are to be found all the principals for which he stands. It is without ornament save that furnished by vines, for he believes beauty should be organic and that no amount of ornament can redeem a badly designed structure. There is not even an overhanging roof to break the severity of the exterior, and as may be seen in the photograph, there is a distinction, a dignity about it that is classic. Mr Gill thinks there is nothing more arrestingly beautiful than a plain wall across which move cloud shadows or a silhouette of flower, and that no carving or frescoing could more perfectly finish a doorway or window than a vine or creeper. Since he depends upon these things to complete the design of his houses, a perfect idea of his work cannot be had until vines have grown along an arch or softened a corner, as he intended them to do.

In the good old days of the guilds, an architect superintended the builders, watching the placing of every stone, the mixing of the mortar and the forming of every detail. Mr. Gill personally oversees every item of construction, and therefore his houses grow strong and beautiful with age. A storm does not break away a thin veneer of cement and expose shoddy workmanship as, alas is so often seen is hastily constructed houses, for these walls are solid concrete, which is as permanent a form of construction as man, so far, has been able to make.

The sincerity of his ideas and their practicality are very evident in the interior finish. He believes in absolute sanitary as well as æsthetic cleanliness and knows that this desirable state of things cannot be had unless the architect makes it possible by elimination of ledges which collect and of cracks which collect germs. So floors are of concrete, rounded into the walls, waxed and waterproofed and of some soft gray, Pompeian red, blue or green tone. His kitchens are given skylights which flare out at the bottom, so that the room may be evenly and amply lighted. The hood over the stove is of cement instead of iron and is an integral part of the wall, so there is no projecting hood to catch and hold the dust.

All the doors are single paneled, and all woodwork set flush with the walls, which makes a decidedly simple and effective finish to a room. In the kitchen, laundry and pantries the woodwork is enameled white so that the dirt will show and thus be swiftly washed off. Cupboard doors lap down in front to avoid any horizontal ledge to hold dust, and at the floor line the cupboards are set back about four inches so that the toes of the workers will not mar the base. the white enameled sinks are set in magnesite which is rounded into the wall so that there is no place for grease to collect.

The interior walls are treated by a peculiar process of Mr. Gill's own, which makes them sensitive to reflection of light. He believes that no wall-paper can equal in charm and beauty a plan wall which can be decorated with a fine pattern of flower, which changes with every mood of the day. Such a wall reflects the color in a silk pillow, a vase of flowers, even a flower growing outside the room in the garden. Sometimes it shimmers with the reflected light from the sun on the waters of a pool. There is always some shell-like bit of Will-o'-the-Wisp color coming from no one knows just where, loitering a moment then passing along to give place to some other fair tone. The walls are therefore alive, always interesting, never fixed and dead.

Still another ideal of the architect's is exemplified in this house, that a house should be designed clear out to the street; in other words the same architect who designs the house should also lay out the garden. Thus, perfect symmetry and poise will mark the whole picture and there will be no danger of a house being marred by its setting, as is so often the case.

Because there is such a profusion of brightly colored flowers in California, a fountain or jar of glazed tile can be used to great advantage. Their gay hues do not stand out too abruptly, but merge in with the flowers in a most natural way. At the end of the garden is a wall fountain of colored tile, which, seen across the stretch of lawn, and over the pool lined with blue tile, looks charmingly at home and relieves the plainness of the wall. the pool is a "Mirror of the Sky;" that is, it is left unplanted, to reflect the blue of sky. All about it, however, are border plants which soften the edge and dapple it with color. On either side of this pool is a double avenue of cocoa plumosa palms with a stepping-stone path of cement squares set in the green lawn beneath them. Back of this formal, partly sunken garden, the hills rise, green in spring, golden in summer and amethyst in the autumn.

There is no creeper in the East that quite takes the place of the ficus ripens, a native of Singapore, but which is universally used in Southern California. It has a small leaf and climes with delicate fingers, following the edge of an arch as though consciously sketching a pattern. Quite in contrast to the creeper is a large group of Bignonias and Tecomas, some pink, others yellow, scarlet or orange. The vine over the entrance to the Dodge home is a Bignonia Tweedianam which covers itself with pale yellow blooms in late spring and then hangs long decorative seed pods the rest of the year. English ivy also has been used, for its beautiful leaf looks well against the white wall. The shining-leafed Caprosma has been used to create rich effects here and there, and of course, all kinds of roses bloom on pergola and arch.

Photo Captions: The architect here deals in forms and masses so arranged as to give the focal point of his composition the necessary emphasis. The background is a simple plaster wall strongly horizontal in direction. In contrast with the simplicity is the pergola top purposely made up of many parts and darkened to gain the additional contrast of color value. The central motive itself has then been detailed, that is divided, into such minute parts that the fineness of its scale and the richness of its color are in strong contrast with the coarse detail and crude color of the background

It is a great pity that the coloring of these shrubs is lost in the photograph, as the coloring is an essential element in the architect's conception of the surroundings to his house.When the vines have entirely covered the walls, the effect will be that of a green mound rising out of a base of green lawn and green planting, and the planting will be thickly interspersed with color. The value of the wall-surface is not, however, merely that of a support to vines. On the contrary the surface will reflect the sunlight in an infinite number of very small patches, and will be the more effective for being partly concealed.

This picture betrays the architect's ideals of design more clearly than any other. We see the simple, severe mass of the house, studied for form only, and without any kind of detail, even a cornice. The single source of relief to the dark values of the windows and the forms of these windows have been given the same consideration by the architect as he gave to the form of the house as a whole. Again it must be borne in mind that the completed project is to be largely covered by vines which are, in the architects mind, the means by which he ties the house and the surroundings together. The difference in texture in the planting must not be forgotten. The lawn appears almost like a body of plain color in contrast with the strongly marked texture which the leaves give to vines and bushes, and the texture of the vines and bushes varies in scale with the sizes of the leaves. Also, there are value and color-interest in the differing greens of the several kinds of planting.

A study of composition of the surroundings. The plain court is surrounded by the comparatively elaborate pergola. The stems of the vine are strongly marked through the leafage, and become the more strongly marked by the shadows which they cast on the wall surface. The total effect is richly decorative.