Browse Items (856 total)

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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.…

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.

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…

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…

The house for Myron Hunt's family, on Wesley Avenue in Evanston, Illinois, is a vaguely Prairie-style, with some Craftsman and Bungalow influences.

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.

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.

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 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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 designed this large house for Martha Chapoton, widow of a prominent Detroit doctor, in the gated community of Fremont Place.

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.

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…

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…

This Buick garage and possibly dealership, is an example of the Art Deco style from the 1920s.

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…

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…

The Leo Berger house in Los Angeles has a Monterey style facade, with second story balcony and tile roof.

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

The Scharlin house in Silver Lake was built for the founder of one of the first co-operative nursery schools in Los Angeles, Rose Scharlin. The house sits at the top of the ridge, on a sloping site far back from the street, with views in multiple…

The Park Plannned Homes is a tract of 28 houses in Altadena, designed by Ain with landscape architect Garrett Eckbo. They have elements of an open concept feel, with a modular building design of 12' x 16' modular units that allowed for common…

The Maurice and Alice Orans House was located on a steeply sloped small lot in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. The garage was built at street level with entrance and exit doors; the curved driveway allows for easy entrance and egress, extra…

The exhibition house Ain designed for the Museum of Modern Art and the Woman's Home Companion magazine was built in New York City in 1950. It was designed to show how modern living could be made accessible to most homeowners, with sliding walls…

This house for Leo Mesner is in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles. The only portion of the house visible from the street is the garage, with the main view of the house is from the backyard. Inside, the house is spread out on four levels, each…

Originally planned as a tract of 100 homes on 60 acres, the Mar Vista Tract built 52 homes. Ain partnered with Joseph Johnson, Alfred Day, and landscape architect Garrett Eckbo to design the housing tract. The houses were turned in different…

This 20-unit apartment building project (never built), was written up in Arts & Architecture Magazine alongside the Case Study House program, but was not part of it. The "Garden Apartments" as they were described, were a series of townhouse-style…

The Alexander and Flora Hural house featured a dental lab on the upper level. It is located in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles.

Harry Hay commissioned Ain to design this house for his mother, Margaret Hay. With clearstory windows and a garage at the front of the property and living room facing the private backyard, the house was seen as a perfect place for Harry Hay to…

Gregory Ain, along with his partners Johnson and Day, designed this never-built extension for Hacienda Village for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. The Extension of the original World War Two era housing project, would have extended…

The Dr. I. Goldberg house was located in the Encino area of the San Fernando Valley. For this house, redwood siding was used. Ain generally preferred stucco since he did not like that the giant redwood trees were cut down for building materials.

The house for Anselem Ernst was built on a sloping hillside lot in the Los Feliz Oaks neighborhood. The exterior angles and interior use of space and geometry are very reminiscent of Rudolph Schindler, with whom Ain worked for a time in the early…

The Ben and Clara Eisenstadt house was built on a hilltop site along Blair Drive in Los Angeles. It now overlooks the Universal Studios lot.

The Charles H. Edwards house was Ain's first solo commission after working for Richard Neutra and Harwell Hamilton Harris. The house, sited on a flat lot in the Hollywood Hills, was named House Beautiful Magazine's "House of the Year" for 1938.

Dunsmuir Flats is a four unit building, all attached, with each 2-story unit containing 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. It is an example of Modern International Style, with a flat roof and horizontal bands of clerestory windows. All of the bedrooms…

This house and studio for Jocelyn and Jan Domela was located in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. Jan Domela was a well-known artist and illustrator for the movie studios.

This house, set on a steep lot overlooking the Silver Lake reservoir, was built for the director of the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild Ursel Daniel. She was single at the time the house was built and later married Martin Irons.

The unbuilt Community Homes project, slated for Reseda, Calif,, included a shopping center, school, parkland, and 16 blocks of homes. Ain partnered with Garrett Eckbo, Simon Eisner, and Reginald D. Johnson to design the housing tract. This housing…

The Albert E. Byler house is located near the top of Mt. Washington, with a view towards downtown Los Angeles. The house is small, measuring less than five hundred square feet, with only a main room, kitchen, and bathroom. The exterior was clad in…

The A.O. Beckman house was sited on a flat lot, and Ain configured the house so that many of the rooms had direct access to the outdoors. The house was located in the La Brea neighborhood of Los Angeles, and was featured in both Architectural Record…

The Isador and Rosa Becker house presented a slightly Streamline Moderne style front facade, with curved walls on the exterior. Inside, the house featured a 'reverse' floor plan-- the main living areas were at street level, and the bedrooms were one…

This group of small homes set side-by-side perpendicular to the street on a long lot, created a community feel, while walls and patios defined individual space. The houses were designed to be low cost urban housing, with the homeowners (a group of…

The Ruth March Ain house was built for Ain's second wife, and is located in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles.

George Fox Steedman was a manufacturing executive from St. Louis who commissioned Smith to work with him on designing and constructing Casa del Herrero (House of the Blacksmith) on East Valley Road in Montecito. They created a house and gardens…

This house for Robert VanWyck Maverick was one of only two houses Smith built in Texas. It was considered one of the best examples of a courtyard-centered house at the time of its construction. The plan for the house was U-shaped, with a fourth wall…

The Lobero Theater on Canon Perdido and Anacapa Streets in downtown Santa Barbara, got its start in the 1870s as a vaudeville house. By the early 1920s, it had fallen into disrepair and Smith was asked to design and build a new theater in the Spanish…

This large Spanish Colonial Revival mansion in the small town of Woodside was built for copper mining magnate Daniel Cowan Jackling and his family. The 17,000 square foot house sat on a 194 acre parcel of land. The property was subdivided and all but…

The Carpenteria beach house for Albert Keep Isham was a Moorish inspired estate directly on the beach. Smith also constructed a natatorium, which was done in an "Islamic" style and contained a large number of decorative tiles around the swimming pool…

The E. Palmer Gavit residence was originally built in 1919 by Reginald Johnson; Smith designed an addition to the main house, as well as outbuildings. The property was originally named "Cuesta Linda," then "Tanglewood," and eventually Madame Ganna…

The Wesley Gallagher house was a Smith commission just prior to his death in 1930. The Smith files contain these sketches and drawings (most done in Riggs' hand) for preliminary elevations for the house. The Riggs files contain the actual working…

The Malcolm Douglas house on Sycamore Canyon Road in Montecito was completed in 1929, and is also known as Los Suenos ("The Dreams"). Douglas, a New York doctor, and his wife, Rachel Peabody Douglas, had Smith design a house to showcase the view of…

George Washington Smith was commissioned by Alfred Dietrich, an heir to an oil manufacturing fortune who also owned a railroad line, to design servants quarters and a garage for his property on Park Lane. This smaller house was built prior to the…

The unincorporated community of Hope Ranch was developed in the early 1920s by the Santa Barbara Estates Inc. company, which was owned by Harold Chase, and Peter Bryce was one of the main stakeholders. Bryce was also one of the early residents, with…

The George Washington Smith portraits are archived in the Lutah Maria Riggs collection; since she was his protege who worked in his firm up until his death in 1930.

A view of a roadway, with eucalyptus trees lining either side. Two men are standing next to a car, looking at plans for the university.

This is a preliminary planting plan for the area surrounding the private residence hall, Francisco Torres. This residence hall, at the corner of Storke Road and El Colegio, was built and maintained by private owners. Though it was heavily marketed…

This is an early pen on heavy paper drawing of scheme for the Faculty Club. The roofline, massing, and collonades are all very different from the building that was eventually built.

The 2016 renovation and addition to the 1968 Faculty Club was completed by Moore & Turnbull's successor firm, Moore Ruble Yudell. The addition included adding a wing of 30 guest rooms and updating the dining room and meeting room interiors.

A birds eye rendering of the Faculty Club, with the Theater and Dance building in the background. The front of the building slopes downwards towards the edge of the lagoon. MLTW/Moore Turnbull Architects were the executive architects, and Charles…

A rendering of the south side of the building, from the current location of the Bren School, looking north. This building housed the newly formed College of Engineering, which included electrical, mechanical, chemical, and computer engineering…