Gregory Ain: Tierman house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house for Samuel and Celia Tierman was sited on a steep lot in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. The small house, with a pyramid-shaped roof, stucco walls, and attached garage was part of Ain's philosophy of bringing modern homes to small budgets. The roof with central skylight and fireplace gave the house a monumental feel on the inside, with high ceilings in the main living area. The house was named Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Landmark #124 in 1974.
Gregory Ain, architect Visscher Boyd, associate architect Julius Shulman, photographer
Gregory Ain papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Gregory Ain: Wilfong house (Altadena, Calif.)
This house in Altadena for John C. Wilfong was a long, low, glass-walled house with views towards the mountains. The investment banker Wilfong wanted a house where he and his wife could entertain and raise their child. Ain designed a linear house with formal entertaining areas that could be walled off with a sliding partition from the informal living areas. Unfortunately, the house burned in 1993 and was completely destroyed.
Gregory Ain, architect Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day, architects Julius Shulman, photographer
This blueprint is an early floor plan for the first floor of the building. The unique shape of the eastern wing makes this building immediately recognizable, and the varied heights of the different components of the building give a visual reference to the different functions of the departments. The building houses the offices of the departments of Anthropology, Asian-American Studies, Classics, Drama and Dance, History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies, as well as the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. The design of HSSB incorporates some of the common elements of the overall campus design such as sheltered courtyards, covered loggias, and classrooms that open directly to the outside. Zimmer, Gunsul, Frasca Architects are an international architectural firm which specializes in commercial and education projects. In addition to HSSB, they also designed the Marine Science Building (2004), and the Bren School of Environmental Studies building (2002).
University of California, Santa Barbara Campus Building records, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Hunt & Chambers: Babcock house (Tenafly, NJ)
While Myron Hunt is known for his houses in the Los Angeles area, he also designed houses in the Chicago area and along the east coast. This house for Mrs. Graham Babcock is an example of Hunt's eastern style.
Myron Hunt & H. G. Chambers records, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Hunt & Chambers: Bard house (Hueneme, Calif.)
This Italian Renaissance Revival mansion was designed by Myron Hunt for Senator Thomas Bard, who was an early land developer and founder of the Union Oil Company. The Bard family owned the house until 1944 when it was acquired by the United States Navy, and today the house sits on the base of Naval Base Ventura County.
Hunt & Chambers: Berger house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Leo Berger house in Los Angeles has a Monterey style facade, with second story balcony and tile roof.
Myron Hunt, architect Padilla, photographer
Hunt & Chambers: Biltmore Garages (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Parking garages were a new type of building in the 1920s, with the recent invention of the motorized vehicle. Garages of this time period catered to the wealthy, with valet services, fuel stations, and service bays which would work on your car while you stayed in the hotel.
Hunt & Chambers: Boyleston apartments (Evanston, Ill.)
Myron Hunt attended Northwestern University in Evanston, then studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, traveled in Europe for a few years, and finally returned to Evanston to work for the Boston-based firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. In 1899 he designed this Georgian Revival style six-unit apartment building on Clark Street.
Hunt & Chambers: Buick Garage (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This Buick garage and possibly dealership, is an example of the Art Deco style from the 1920s.
Hunt & Chambers: California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, Calif.)
Throop Polytechnic Institute was founded in 1891 and changed its name to California Polytechnic Institute in 1920. Throop Hall was damaged in a 1971 earthquake and was demolished in 1973. Some of the decorative elements of the original building were saved and the original building site is now Throop Memorial Garden.
Myron Hunt, architect Elmer Grey, architect Hunt & Grey, architects
Hunt & Chambers: California Junior Republic (Chino Hills, Calif.)
The buildings for the California Junior Republic, an all-boys school for troubled youth, were designed by Myron Hunt in 1911, with additional buildings by Chambers and Hibbard in 1950. Originally named George Junior Republic, the facility changed its name in 1921 to California Junior Republic, and finally Boys Republic in 1953.
Myron Hunt, architect H.C. Chambers and Lester Hibbard, architects
Hunt & Chambers: Canoga Park High School (Canoga Park, Calif.)
These renderings for the Cafeteria and Boys Physical Education building at Canoga Park High School were designs by Chambers and Hibbard, the architects who continued the firm after Myron Hunt's death in 1952.
H.C. Chambers and Lester Hibbard, architects
Hunt & Chambers: Chapoton house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Myron Hunt designed this large house for Martha Chapoton, widow of a prominent Detroit doctor, in the gated community of Fremont Place.
Hunt & Chambers: Cochran house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This house for Guy Cochran was designed in the American Bungalow style, and written about in the Craftsman magazine. It featured large windows overlooking a manicured terrace for indoor/outdoor living.
Myron Hunt, architect Elmer Grey, architect Hunt and Grey, architects
Hunt & Chambers: Cole house (Pasadena, Calif.)
George Watson Cole was the librarian for the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery from 1915 to 1924. Previously, Cole had studied with Melvil Dewey, and worked at the Newberry Library in Chicago and public libraries on the East Coast. The floor plan hints at Cole's occupation, with an unusual combination dining room/library and a room labelled 'books.'
Myron Hunt, architect Harold Chambers, architect Hunt & Chambers, architects
Hunt & Chambers: Elks Club lodge (Pasadena, Calif.)
The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks (Lodge #672) has been the headquarters of the Elks in Pasadena since 1911. The Colonial Revival style building has been the site of many television and film shoots, as well as a prominent place during the Rose Bowl Parade.
Hunt & Chambers: Emery house (San Marino, Calif.)
This estate for Katherine Sinclair Emery (widow of Frank Emery, who at the time of his death was considered one of the richest men in California) sits on 9 acres in San Marino. The Tudor style house is now known as Thornton Gardens. Hunt worked with landscape architects Florence Yoch, Lucille Council, and Katherine Bashford on the estate gardens. The National Trust for Historic Preservation acquired the house in 2018, along with the Huntington Library, and will preserve the house and grounds.
Myron Hunt, architect Harold Chambers, architect Hunt & Chambers, architects W.M. Clarke, photographer Florence Yoch and Lucille Council, landscape architects Katherine Bashford, landscape architect
Hunt & Chambers: First Congregational Church (Riverside, Calif.)
This church is in the Spanish Colonial style, with a Churrigueresque style steeple. The building is in the shape of a Latin cross, with two-foot-thick walls which are made of reinforced concrete, and a red tile roof that highlights the Spanish Colonial style. Hunt & Grey were chosen as architects for the church after a competition for the design, which included architects Arthur Benton and Lester Moore. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Hunt & Chambers: Flintridge Biltmore Hotel (La Canada Flintridge, Calif.)
The hotel was built for Senator Frank Putnam Flint, who later sold the hotel to the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels company. In 1931, the building and 30 acre grounds were sold to form the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, a Catholic school for grades k-12.
Myron Hunt, architect Harold Chambers, architect Hunt & Chambers, architects W.M. Clarke, photographer
Hunt & Chambers: Flintridge Country Club (La Canada Flintridge, Calif.)
The Flintridge Country Club was built with thick walls, to block out the hot summer air and retain heat in the winter. The Club maintained separate spaces for women and men-- locker rooms, lounges-- but the center of the main building featured the dining room for all club members. The Country Club closed in the 1940s, and portions of the property were taken over by St. Francis High School.
Myron Hunt, architect H.C. Chambers, architect Hunt and Chambers, architects
Hunt & Chambers: Fowler house (Chino, Calif.)
This house for Margaret Fowler was adjacent to the Boys Republic property she purchased for the organization. After her death in 1936, the organization donated the home to a polio treatment center, which was named Casa Colina Convalescent Home for Crippled Children.
Hunt & Chambers: Garland house (Balboa, Calif.)
This large beach house was sited directly on the sand. With large balconies facing the water, the house allowed for indoor/outdoor living on the beach. The house sat on a corner lot, and included a long wooden boardwalk through the loose sand dunes to the beach.
Myron Hunt, architect H.C. Chambers, architect
Hunt & Chambers: Gillespie house (Montecito, Calif.)
Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey were the supervising architects for the design of the James Waldron Gillespie House, for the originating architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Gillespie took Goodhue on a seven month around-the-world tour as inspiration for the design of the house, El Fureidis. The house is famous as a filming location for the movie Scarface.
Myron Hunt, architect Elmer Grey, architect Hunt and Grey, architects Goodhue, Bertram Grosvenor, architect
Hunt & Chambers: Hawks house (Beverly Hills, Calif.)
Howard Hawks was a director, screen writer, and producer from the 1920s until the 1950s. The house in Benedict Canyon was built with stucco and stone, with a vaguely Colonial style and early California ranch influences.
Myron Hunt, architect H.C. Chambers, architect Hunt and Chambers, architects Florence Yoch and Lucille Council, landscape architects
Hunt & Chambers: Hotel Belmar (Mazatlan, Mex.)
This hotel for Lewis Bradbury was one of many hotels designed by Myron Hunt. This one is located in the resort town of Mazatlan, Mexico.
Hunt & Chambers: Hueneme Bank building (Hueneme, Calif.)
This Neoclassical style building was home to the Hueneme Bank, later served as the Port Hueneme city hall, and is now the Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum. It was named a Ventura County Historic Landmark in 1977.
Hunt & Chambers: Hunt house (Evanston, Ill.)
The house for Myron Hunt's family, on Wesley Avenue in Evanston, Illinois, is a vaguely Prairie-style, with some Craftsman and Bungalow influences.
Hunt & Chambers: Hunt house (Pasadena, Calif.)
The house that Myron Hunt designed for himself and his family on North Grand Avenue in Pasadena, California, bears a small resemblance to his previous house in Illinois. The gardens, loggia, and other outdoor areas highlight the difference in climate between the two sites.
Hunt & Chambers: Huntington Library estate (San Marino, Calif.)
Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey worked for railroad magnate and real estate mogul Henry Huntington to design buildings to house Huntington's extensive library and art collections. The Mediterranean revival style building formed the basis for the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, which first opened to the public in 1928.
Myron Hunt, architect Elmer Grey, architect H.C. Chambers, architect Hunt & Chambers, architects
Hunt & Chambers: Huntington Memorial Hospital (Pasadena, Calif.)
The original buildings are almost completely subsumed and surrounded by new medical facilities, but these original hospital buildings can still be seen from aerial views.
Hunt & Chambers: Taylor house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Russel Taylor house in Los Angeles is an example of a traditional house, with a Colonial style front facade and a center stair hall. The public rooms at the front of the house lead out to a back terrace, which faces an expansive flat year. Upstairs, three main bedrooms along with maid's rooms and baths occupy the second floor.
Institute of Theoretical Physics -- Kohn Building
This rendering of the east elevation of the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics shows the sloping tile roof, vine covered trellises, and stucco exterior mimics the Spanish Revival nature of Santa Barbara architecture.
Institute of Theoretical Physics-- Kohn Hall floor plan
This is an early floor plan of the original building for Kohn Hall, designed by Michael Graves. The Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics is a world-renown research facility where physicists meet to collaborate on cutting edge research and theoretical questions. The scientists come to UCSB for extended periods of time (anywhere from one week to many months) to meet and discuss new problems in the field. The Kohn Building was originally designed in 1994 by architect Michael Graves, with an addition completed in 2004, also by Graves. The building was designed specifically to foster interactions between scientists, so offices and hallways are laid out in such a manner as to facilitate random meetings and impromptu discussions (with a number of blackboards in communal spaces for working out complex theoretical issues). Michael Graves is known for being one of the leading examples of postmodern architecture. In addition to building iconic commercial and public buildings (like the Denver Public Library and an expansion of the Whitney Museum of American Art), he was a Professor of Architecture at Princeton University and a designer for Alessi and Target. His postmodern and urbanist style was reflected in the use of color and classical elements in new and varied ways.
This early photograph of Irving Gill, from circa 1898, shows him soon after he moved to the San Diego area from Chicago. Gill is dressed in a suit with a bow tie and is looking away from the camera. It is one of a series of posed studio portraits taken of Gill in various poses.
Irving J. Gill, architect Unknowm photographer
Irving John Gill papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara
Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara
Irving J. Gill: Alice Lee and Katherine Teats houses (San Diego, Calif.)
Alice Lee (a San Diego socialite and second cousin of Theodore Roosevelt’s first wife) and Katherine Teats commissioned two distinct house groups from Gill. In 1905 Gill designed a house for Lee and Teats on Seventh Avenue, with adjacent rental houses, all in the Prairie style, on land purchased from George Marston, another client who built a significant house nearby, currently a museum and historic landmark. Hazel Waterman, then working in Gill’s office, did the drawings. The landscape was by Kate Sessions. In the period photographs, the streets are unpaved and the upper stories of the houses contain sleeping porches-- open air rooms with ample cross-ventilation in a time before air conditioning.
Irving J. Gill: Bailey house (La Jolla, Calif.)
Frank Mead worked in the Hebbard and Gill office beginning about 1904. He and Gill formed a seven-month partnership in 1907, when the H & G partnership ended. Before joining the office, Mead, though trained as an architect, worked actively, and successfully, for the repatriation of lands to the Mohave-Apache (Yavapai) Indians in 1904. He was helped in his efforts by his friends: Charles Fletcher Lummis, the founder of the Landmarks Club and editor of Out West magazine; Natalie Curtis, ethnomusicologist of Indian songs and friend of Alice Klauber, Charles Douglas and Wheeler Bailey. Douglas and Bailey were sympathetic to the plight of displaced Native Americans and collected their art and crafts. While this house had gas lighting, there is a note on the plan regarding telephone service near the kitchen.
Irving J. Gill: Barker house (San Diego, Calif.)
Gill used simplicity, symmetry and strategic asymmetry in his landscapes and buildings. Garden walls extend the building volume across the site, while also enclosing gardens and terraces. In this series of drawings of graphite and gouache on board for the Nelson Barker house, the white planes of the house and garden walls stand out against the faintly-sketched backdrop.
Irving J. Gill: Bishop's Day School (San Diego, Calif.)
Bishop Johnson lived in Pasadena and the Episcopal Church originally planned to build a preparatory school in Sierra Madre. When Ellen Scripps and her sister Elizabeth Virginia Scripps offered to be benefactors, the decision was made to build a day school in San Diego and a boarding school in La Jolla. Ellen recommended Irving Gill for both projects, pleased with his work on the Scripps Biological Station, 1908.
Irving J. Gill: Bishop's School for Girls (La Jolla, Calif.)
In the Woman’s Club, the La Jolla Playground Community House, and here in the Bishop’s School, Gill used an arcaded screen wall as a unifying element, and to articulate his austere geometry with rhythmic voids. Scripps Hall was built in 1910, Bentham Hall in 1912, and Gilman Hall in 1916-17. Louis Gill continued to add to the school’s building program, and Carleton Winslow, who was brought to California by Goodhue to work on the 1915 San Diego exposition, replaced Gill’s tower, put a dome on Bentham Hall, and added St. Mary’s Chapel and the Wheeler Bailey Library in the 1920s.
Irving J. Gill: Clarke house (Santa Fe Springs, Calif.)
Built on 60 acres of orange groves, the Clarke estate was Gill’s last major residential project. Constructed of poured in place reinforced concrete, the house measures 8,000 square feet. Gill’s drawings note that Gill and Pearson built the house using the “Gill System.” The Clarkes called their “ranch house,” Krankhaven (in German, a healthy haven). The Clarke house plan bears a remarkable similarity to that of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock house (1917-1921) in Los Angeles for Aline Barnsdall, on which Lloyd Wright and Rudolf Schindler worked. When oil was discovered on their land shortly after they moved in, the Clarkes moved elsewhere, including to land in the Coachella Valley where they established a date farm. Marie Rankin was a patron of the arts in Los Angeles and, among other efforts, donated the land for the Hollywood Bowl, for which Lloyd designed two shells, in 1927 and 1928.
Irving J. Gill: Cositt house elevations (Coronado, Calif.)
The designs from the Hebbard and Gill partnership were eclectic, leaning toward English cottages with Arts and Crafts influence, but included Neo-classical, Gothic, Queen Anne, Mission Revival, and Prairie School styles. In this drawing of a house for Mrs. F.B. Cossitt, the exterior elevations are annotated to include faint red lines indicating the level of each floor and stairwells. Small drawings of specific details and sections are squeezed in between the elevations, to add clarification to certain portions of the drawing.
Irving J. Gill: Daily Blade-Tribune building (Oceanside, Calif.)
In the last year of his life, with the Depression still strong, Gill designed at least four buildings, of which only the Blade-Tribune newspaper building and a beauty parlor in Redondo Beach were built. In 1936 he was working on a theater with Zara Witkin, a civil engineer for the City of Los Angeles who had worked on the Hollywood Bowl with Lloyd Wright, 1927-1928. In a 1936 letter to Gill, Witkin notes that he visited the Dodge house on Gill’s recommendation and was eager to discuss the “possibilities of mutual work.”
Irving J. Gill: Darst flats (San Diego, Calif.)
Gill designed two identical buildings bisected by a walkway from the street to the rear of the property. The floor plan for both buildings shows the mirror image of the first and second floors. Each building contained two two-bedroom apartments, with large living room (with fireplace), dining room, bathroom, kitchen with screened porch, and balconies on the first floor (with a lightwell above on the second floor).
Irving J. Gill: Dodge house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Dodge house was located on Kings Road, just north of the future site of Schindler’s own 1921 house. Considered Gill’s masterpiece, the design was widely praised for, as historian Leland Roth wrote," revealing a functional asymmetry whose ornament was derived solely from the studied geometry of the sharp openings in plain walls." The house was bulldozed, after a long preservation effort, on February 9, 1970. The shock of that loss helped launch the Los Angeles Conservancy, founded in 1978. Gill assembled his own crew to build this and other houses in the L.A. area, in order to get exactly what he wanted. The house was built of reinforced concrete, with metal windows and had many modern conveniences. The layering and piling of cubes and rectangular forms in the Dodge and Clarke houses resembles Native American pueblo buildings. Schindler and Wright consciously borrowed from these native structures, but it’s not clear what Gill’s immediate sources were.
Irving J. Gill: Ellen Scripps house (La Jolla, Calif.)
A book could be written about Gill’s women clients, and Ellen Scripps would be a significant chapter. She helped her brothers build a successful newspaper business and moved to La Jolla in 1897, when the town had “cow paths in lieu of streets.” The success of the Scripps newspaper syndicate allowed her to live independently and to make significant contributions to La Jolla. When her first house burned down, she asked Gill to design a fireproof house for the site. In a 1915 diary entry, Scripps described visiting Gill in his LA office to see the plans for her new house. He took her to his Banning, Dodge and Laughlin houses to see things, “Mr. Gill wants to introduce into my building.” Later, in a 1916 letter to her sister, she wrote: “The two Gills have been busy all day…in shirtsleeves and overalls down on their knees ‘surfacing’ the cement floors. I don’t know if you will like the effect, but to me it is ‘a thing of beauty and a joy forever.’”
Irving J. Gill: Gill cottages (San Diego, Calif.)
Gill designed approximately eight cottages for parcels of land he purchased in San Diego. There is little documentation for these, but all or most of the houses seem to have been built on Albatross, Front, Robinson Mews, and Hawthorne streets.Gill proudly wrote to his father that he built his small houses, “so as to work out some new ideas I had for a cheap, semi-fireproof cottage for working men’s families. They have been a great success and I am building several others of similar construction.” Gill and his nephew Louis lived at 3719 Albatross in 1912. Lloyd Wright and his brother John lived in another of the cottages, down the lane. Gill reused the plan of his Cleveland Heights house in his preliminary design for the Bella Vista Terrace cottages, several years later.
Irving J. Gill: Gill office (San Diego, Calif.)
The photograph in the reception area of the office depicts the Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá, the first Franciscan mission in New Spain. William Hebbard and Irving Gill (Hebbard and Gill partnership, 1896-1907) stabilized the building in 1899-1900 for the California Landmarks Club. According to his nephew Louis Gill, Irving studied the building closely to understand its simple dignity. The second image shows brushes, paints, and smocks, as well as photographs of Hebbard and Gill designs on the wall, including the Ellen Mason house (1903) and the First Methodist Episcopal Church (1905-07), and a 1914 issue of House and Garden, which includes an article about Gill’s work. Gill’s fascination with concrete as an inexpensive, fireproof building material prompted his intensive experiments with concrete formulations, using the bags of sand, water jug, scales, and other instruments for testing concrete mixtures.
Irving J. Gill: Holly Sefton Memorial Hospital (San Diego, Calif.)
Gill’s intention was to make his buildings as efficient as possible, and that is certainly true for this hospital, funded by Joseph Sefton and built on the grounds of the Children’s Home. The hospital was built of concrete to make it easy to keep clean and free of infestation. The operating area was well lit by natural light through the use of large skylights in the roof and a wall of windows. The accompanying photographic image from the period remind us how modern Gill’s buildings looked in comparison to what existed, and how much land close to cities was still undeveloped. At far left is the Sefton Hospital, with the Gill-designed Children's Home Association boys dormitory in the middle, and a typical building for the time, on the right.
Irving J. Gill: Horatio West court (Santa Monica, Calif.)
Gill helped Schindler and Claude Chase form and raise the tilt-slab walls for the Schindler house on Kings Road, 1921. Invoices in the Schindler archive show that Schindler rented some of Gill’s equipment for the concrete work. Chase assisted Gill on the construction of Horatio West, which has concrete floors and roof, and walls thinly constructed of plaster covered lathe. The building permit for this project was announced in 1922. The Horatio West and Lewis Courts are among the best examples of Gill’s intentions and compositional strategies. Richard Neutra was sufficiently intrigued when he first saw Gill’s buildings in 1925 that he included Horatio West, and several other Gill buildings,in his 1930 book, Amerika.
Irving J. Gill: Klauber house (San Diego, Cailf.)
This house had a simplified exterior form, with a slight Japanese flavor in the tilt of the roof, and a warm Arts and Crafts interior. Melville Klauber was from San Diego’s growing merchant class, and married to the sister of Julius Wangenheim. Klauber made room in his house for a studio for his own sister, Alice Klauber, a painter who had studied with American artist, Robert Henri. Alice was friends with Natalie Curtis, the ethnomusicologist and collector of Native American songs; Frank Mead; and Charles Douglas and Wheeler Bailey. Alice was later the chairperson for the Panama Californian Exposition’s Art Exhibition section.
Irving J. Gill: La Jolla Women's Club (La Jolla, Calif.)
Gill’s notes about the concrete work for the Club and the sequential construction photographs provide unusual detail for one of Gill’s significant civic designs. Robert H. Aiken is usually credited as the tilt-up pioneer in the U.S; he constructed several building in the Midwest between 1905 and 1910. When Aiken went bankrupt, Gill purchased the jacks and tilt-slab table in 1912 and used them to construct the Sarah Clark house (1913), Mary Banning house (1913-14), the Woman’s Club, and the La Jolla Playground Community House. Gill put great faith in concrete and this system and founded the Concrete Building and Investment Company. Although he kept the equipment at least until 1923, his venture lost heavily. It was in the end an expensive way to build.
Irving J. Gill: Laughlin house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This is the first Los Angeles building that Gill designed on his own. The house has a classic center hall plan and an enclosed outdoor court. He typically oriented his plans so that one was drawn toward the light and landscape at the back of the house. Abstract Doric columns supported unfinished logs to create vine-covered pergolas. Modern conveniences included a garbage disposal, vacuum cleaner outlets in each room, and a car wash in the garage. Laughlin also commissioned the Laughlin Theater (Long Beach) and planning for Casa Grandes (the Laughlin Park development, Los Angeles) from Gill.
Irving J. Gill: Laughlin Park Casa Grandes development (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Los Angeles Herald published several articles announcing the luxury housing development at Laughlin Park. A 1912 article announced that Gill was in charge of all planning for this Hollywood Hills development on a site of three acres. Another article, attributed to Gill, describes the planned development. By 1913, Laughlin had sold the land and Gill was no longer involved. Laughlin Park remains an exclusive neighborhood but none of the homes were designed by Gill.
Irving J. Gill, architect Lloyd Wright, landscape architect
Irving J. Gill: Lewis- Bella Vista Terrace court (Sierra Madre, Calif.)
Gill’s site planning was especially successful in this project. He pushed the cottages to the outside edge of the plot to leave a large public area for shared gardens and a loggia. He also placed each L-shaped cottage so that its arcaded porch and small garden had privacy from its neighbors. Though the cottages appear to be made of concrete, the walls are plastered hollow clay blocks. Fred B. Lewis was a jeweler from Cleveland. On a 1910 trip to California, he spent a vacation at the Cypress Court in Sierra Madre (owned by Frank Fraiburg, also a jeweler from Cleveland), located just north of where Lewis would decide to build his own house court for tourists such as himself. Gill planned 12 cottages for Lewis but only eight were built. In 1913 the Sierra Madre News announced that Lewis had purchased three acres, adjacent to Bella Vista Terrace, for a hotel being designed by Gill. The hotel was not built; Lewis sold Bella Vista Terrace in 1914 and moved to Long Beach, Calif.
Irving J. Gill: Miltmore house (South Pasadena, Calif.)
The austere Miltmore house is generously “ornamented by nature.” Gill sited the house to preserve the many trees on the sprawling lot and placed long loggias alongside the front and rear elevations. The interior is gracious though simple, designed to be easy to keep clean. Gill raised the floors of the closets to keep out dust, and eliminated all moldings. The roof holds a solar hot water heater and skylights. The master bathroom includes a newly popular feature: a shower.
Irving J. Gill: Rancho Barona Resettlement project (near Lakeside, Calif.)
The architect and planner Frederick Gutheim worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 1930s. His letters to architectural critic Esther McCoy and to Louis Gill describe his friendship with Irving Gill and the Barona Resettlement project they worked on together. Letters in the Gill archive from agents in Washington D. C. refer to the clay block construction and the task of finding a proficient contractor for the Magnesite, which Gill specified for the interiors. Gutheim reported that Gill worked alongside the new residents to build the church and 12 cottages of handmade clay bricks. He was convinced that Gill’s work was important for being “a truly native style of modern building in California.”
Irving J. Gill: Scripps Biological Station (La Jolla, Calif.)
Gill’s austere clarity was especially suited to pragmatic building programs, such as the concrete Biological Station. Ellen Scripps funded the building, now part of the University of California, in honor of her brother George.
Irving J. Gill: South Bay Union School (San Diego, Calif.)
Gill designed a number of schools. A 1913 article about his concrete public school for the City of Fontana praised the large outdoor playground and quoted Gill as saying that the basement playroom is “the most glaring evil in school room construction today.”
Irving J. Gill, architect John S. Siebert, architect
Irving J. Gill: Timken house (San Diego, Calif.)
This 18-room house built for the steel manufacturer, Henry Timken, was Gill’s largest to date. Gill placed the house close to the street, leaving room for enclosed courts and a large garden. Eloise Roorbach’s contemporary article noted that the “court is the center of the home life,” and praised the design for, “not a single ornament mars the pure symmetry of [the house].”
Irving J. Gill: Wangenheim house (San Diego, Calif.)
Hebbard and Gill designed an English cottage for Wangenheim, a civic leader, owner of a grocery store business, and the father-in-law of Melville Klauber, another Gill client. San Diego was a small town and Hebbard and Gill worked with most of its prominent citizens, reflecting the significance of the firm in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
J. R. Davidson: The Golden Lion Inn, Sheridan Plaza Hotel (Chicago, Illinois)
Photographs of the exterior entrance, bar, and lunch counter of the Golden Lion Inn. The facade echoed tavern aesthetics, yet the inside was incredibly spacious and well lit.
J.R. Davidson, architect Hedrich-Blessing Studio, photographer
Julius Ralph Davidson papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
J.R Davidson: Rabinowitz House (Bel Air, Los Angeles, Calif.)
Photographs of the interior and a floor plan of the Rabinowitz House. The design featured a panoramic view of Bel Air from its secluded position on a hill.
J. R. Davidson, architect Martin Rand, photographer
J.R. Davidson: Bachelor's Haberdashery Shop (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Photographs of the entrance and interior of the Haberdashery (a men's clothing store). This business replaced the earlier Schilling's Flowers.
J.R. Davidson: Berlin Armchair Design (Berlin, Germany)
Originally designed in Berlin, Davidson brought this drawing with him to America. The slightly curved armrests are reminiscent of Bruno Paul's own armchair designs.
J.R. Davidson: Bilicke-Satyr Books (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Photographs of the exterior and interior of the Bilicke-Satyr Bookstore, featuring special strip lights. Many of Davidson's early commercial projects incorporate Art Deco elements, calculating geometric shapes, sleek forms, and straight lines.
J.R. Davidson, architect Willard Morgan, photographer
J.R. Davidson: Blake G. Smith House (Laguna Beach, Calif.)
Sketches of the vacation house designed for Blake g Smith. The house was situated on the top of the cliffs, with a staircase leading down to a "natural sea pool".
J.R. Davidson: Bransten House (San Francisco, Calif.)
Davidson was asked to design a family home for Richard Bransten, son of a wealthy coffee manufacturer from San Francisco. The window design reflects De-Stijl sensibilities, focusing on large geometric shapes. The three story residence was built on a slope to provide abundant opportunities for sunshine, outside terracing, and views of the city. The multiple levels also provided more locations for social and family interaction.
J.R. Davidson: California Sport Magazine cover
Davidson's design for the cover of California Sport Magazine.
J.R. Davidson: Cellarette on Wheels (Chicago, Illinois)
Davidson's furniture and restaurant supply designs expressed both Art Deco and modernist sensibilities. His "cellarette" concept for a pullout bar on wheels echoes the same simple, functional design of his patent for an easy open cigarette container.
J.R. Davidson: Church Steeple (Posen, Poland)
Watercolor sketch of a church steeple when Davidson probably still lived in Posen, Poland.
J.R. Davidson: Cocoanut Grove, Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Photographs of the interior of the coconut grove courtyard and lamp details. Davidson emphasized unique lighting designs, with the lamps here incorporating vegetal or "oriental" star elements.
J.R. Davidson, architect Mott Studios, photographer
J.R. Davidson: Converted Apartment (Berlin, Germany)
Photographs of the former servants' quarters that Davidson retrofitted into his five-bedroom apartment in Berlin.
J.R. Davidson: Crosby House (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The plan of the Floyd D. Crosby Residence is actually the same floor plan Davidson used for the design of his own home, though the interior design choices of the homes differed widely.
J.R. Davidson: Davidson House (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Floor plan and photographs of the residence Davidson designed for himself and his wife on South Barrington Avenue in Los Angeles.
J.R. Davidson, architect Robert Cleveland, photographer
J.R. Davidson: Drive-in Curb Market (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Renderings and floor plan of the Drive-in Curb Market. Designs like this clearly anticipated the increasing importance of automobiles in the modern age.
J.R. Davidson: Feingold and Harris medical building (Los Angeles, Calif.)
These photographs document the narrow medical building that housed the practices of Dr. B.F. Feingold and and Dr. J.M. Harris. The spaces were designed to be modern and expansive, with scattered lighting and noise insulation.
J.R. Davidson, architect Julius Shulman, photographer
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J.R. Davidson: Foster Project (Bishop Calif.)
Built in the single-story"ranch style", the Walter Foster House project was one of Davidson's new designs bearing a departure from the International Style in favor of Soft Modernism. The house's plan incorporated local building styles and materials, a hallmark of the related concept of Regionalism. Sadly, it was never built.
J.R. Davidson: Gretna Green apartments (Brentwood, Calif.)
Photographs of the exterior of the apartments. The plans reflected the Bauhaus concept of utilizing limited space. Each of the four apartments has an exterior space such as a patio or sundeck to provide private outside access- a luxury usually only available to single-family homes.
J.R. Davidson: Hi-Hat Restaurant (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Photographs of the interior of the Hi-Hat restaurant. The owner originally requested an English style tavern, to which Davidson created a design that reflected his wishes but through a modernist's sensibilities.
J.R. Davidson, architect Willard, Morgan, photographer
J.R. Davidson: Hotel Knickerbocker Bar and Tavern (Chicago, Illinois)
Photographs of the remodeled bar and tavern of the Hotel Knickerbocker. The resulting shape of the space results from the combination of "several existing odd rooms".
J.R. Davidson, architect Kaufman-Fabry, photographer
J.R. Davidson: Joseph Kingsley House (Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Calif.)
After supposedly being turned down by Richard Neutra to design their home, clients Joseph and Lore Kingsley commissioned Davidson to design a unique home to fit their needs. This design was then mirrored next door in the house built for Joseph Kingsley's mother. Both houses provided southern exposure to a lemon grove and beyond, the ocean.
Schematics of lamp designs. Davidson was inspired by Bauhaus furniture, which were streamlined, stainless steel constructions.
J.R. Davidson: Maitland Residence (Bel Air, Los Angeles, Calif.)
Davidson retrofitted this Georgian home to better house the owner's modern art collection. He replaced wall space with larger windows and a glass enclosed porch to allow more light in and open up the space.
J.R. Davidson: Office (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Photos and plan of the entrance to Davidson's office in Los Angeles. The facade echoes the stylistic influences of Rudolph Schindler and Frank Lloyd Wright.
A portrait of J.R. Davidson in his later years.
J.R. Davidson: Rattan and Bamboo Furniture
Davidson designed a whole line of outdoor furniture crafted from rattan and bamboo materials, which are flexible and durable enough to withstand the elements. He was inspired by Asian modes of craft-making, classic wooden furniture, and the designs of Paul T. Frankl, an industrial artist.
J.R. Davidson: Sardi's Restaurant (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Davidson was commissioned to refurbish Sardi's Restaurant, which originally had interior design work done by Rudolph Schindler. Davidson reorganized the inside and added new features, opening up the space by cleverly incorporating partitions and changing the color scheme.
J.R. Davidson: Schilling's Flower Store (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Photograph of the interior and front entrance of the Schilling's Flower Store. It was later replaced by Bachelor's Haberdashery Shop.
J.R. Davidson: Sketch of Sommer im Schutzengraben
Watercolor sketch from one of Davidson's sketchbooks.
J.R. Davidson: Sketches of Objects in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs (Paris, France)
An early sketchbook of Davidson's studies of furniture and other objects from a decorative arts and design museum in Paris. Note the attention to detail and pattern.
J.R. Davidson: Stothart House (Santa Monica, Calif.)
Photographs of the exterior of the Stothart House; one of the driveway entrance and one of the side patio. The design emphasis on horizontal and flat forms, along with uniform windows and parapets echoed the International Style.
J.R. Davidson: Taylor House (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This house was designed not unlike the Crosby residence and Davidson's own home, although in the Taylor house the kitchen plan is more open and a glass vitrine provides views into the living room.
J.R. Davidson: Tierney and Co. Restaurant and Cafe-Bar (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Concept for the Tierney and Co. Restaurant. Note the bold Art Deco inspired interior.
J.R. Davidson: View of Klopstockstrase (Berlin)
Watercolor sketch of Davidson's hometown of Berlin.
J.R. Davidson: Vigeveno #1 (Ojai, Calif.)
Exterior photograph of the Vigeveno #1 House, a ranch-style vacation home for art dealer James Vigeveno and his family. Another design was made for Vigeveno alongside the first, although this second house featured a completely different architectural style.
These undated portraits of Peters highlight his personal style and attitude in line with his interior designs.
Jock Peters papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Jock Peters: Bullocks Wilshire store (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Bullocks Wilshire department store was one of the first to cater to customers in automobiles. The large Art Deco edifice was easily recognizable, and customers were able to drive up, have a valet securely park their car at the rear of the building, then shop or dine inside the 230,000 square foot building. The building was designed by father and son architecture firm Parkinson and Parkinson. Jock Peters and Eleanor Lemaire worked for the Fiel & Paradise Company as interior designers and were responsible for the first few floors of the store. Each of the departments was designed to be a luxurious retreat, where live mannequins and low display cases featured items for sale, not racks of clothes, which would obscure the architecture and interior details of the room. Bullocks department store was eventually bought out by Macy's, which rebranded the location as an I Magnin store. By the early 1990s, the chain had folded and the building was purchased by the Southwestern Law School.
Jock Peters, designer Eleanor Lemaire, designer Parkinson and Parkinson, architects Mott Studios, photographer
Jock Peters: Gilks house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This two-story modern house for the cinematographer Alfred Gilks is in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, just a short distance from Griffith Park. The house features multiple decks, an outdoor fireplace on the patio, and a mural in one of the bedrooms by Buckley MacGurrin.
Jock Peters: L.P. Hollander store (New York, NY)
Jock Peters worked with Eleanor LeMaire on the interiors of the women's clothing store. The architectural firm who designed the building was Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, and it is located on East 57th Street in Manhattan. The store was laid out 'boutique style' with many different areas or shops for the customer to browse. LeMaire was a New York based interior designer, and had worked with Peters on the Bullocks Wilshire store
Jock Peters, designer Eleanor LeMaire, designer
After working for the movie industry for a few years, in 1927 Peters began working with his brother George as Peters by Jock, Brothers Modern American Design Office. They designed furniture and other interior pieces.