David Gebhard and Robert Winter A Guide to Architecture in Los Angeles & Southern California, Peregrine Smith: Santa Barbara, 1977, 728 pp., 1977, 1966, 1961, 1960s, 1941, 1938, 1937, 1936, 1935, 1930s, 1925, 1921, 1919, 1915, 1910, 1909, 1905, 1910s, 1900, 1895, 1890s,
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" . . . the wholesale exploitation of Mission elements, often with Moorish effects that the Franciscans had not thought of, into a new style-the Mission Revival or simply the Mission style (ca. 1891-1915) . . . adapting it to houses, museums, railroad stations, school buildings, city halls and of course churches, to the point that . . . it became an emblem of a region.
"Ironically, like Frederick Jackson Turner's winds of democracy, the Mission style blew east, becoming a favored style for amusement parks and recreational buildings and here and there a house (without palm trees. There is, indeed, a Mission-Revival band instrument factory in Elkhart, Indiana. More importantly , the style looked two ways. On one hand it heralded the treasure trove of Iberia and anticipated the San Diego Fair of 1915 where Churrigueresque, Plateresque and Moorish details were displayed, causing a craze for a Spanish Colonial Revival in the twenties. On the other hand the broad white stucco surfaces and deep recesses indicated the possibilities of a style which would reflect the Spanish-Mexican heritage and the climate of a country where the sun usually shines and, at the same time, an economy of ornament which might lead to a new style. Thus, while buildings in the Mission style are often awkward, even ugly; the style, in the hands of a consummate artist, such as Irving Gill, could be beautiful. In fact, Gill's work often resembles the European International style which was developing at the same time. But Gill was far in advance of his European contemporaries in his sensitivity to nature. Where foreign designs seem to have been intended to contrast with the natural surroundings, Gill took great interest in bringing nature to the house. His favorite device was the pergola, but it is also significant that he went so far as to put an almost imperceptible green tint into what otherwise seems to be white paint and used it on interior walls in order to complement the natural surroundings.
"Unfortunately Gill was almost a prophet without honor in his own country. His essays in abstraction and simplification were rarely imitated, and what has happened to most of them forms a sorry chapter in the history of the destruction of the usable past." p. 18
"The mention of Gill and his connection with the Mission style should be a reminder that both he and his style were part and parcel of the contemporaneous Arts and Crafts or Craftsman movement. . . . The epicenter of the Craftsman movement was not East Aurora, Eastwood, Oak Park or even Berkeley, . . . but Southern California. It is surprising that a style which used so much wood as a symbol of the love of work that the machine had wiped out should have gained such enormous popularity in an area where there are few forests and where the danger of dry-rot and infestation by termites would seem to make it the worst possible material. . . . the vision which promoted Southern California as a haven from the cruelties of life and automatically promoted a style which would fit into picturesque surroundings. . . . favored by the intellectual and artistic elites who are always conscious of the necessity to wage eternal war on crass materialism.
"It was also in Southern California that the bungalow, the apotheosis of William Morris' notion of a proletarian art that he could never himself attain, found its true home. Here a young family on the make, a sick family on the mend or an old family on meagre savings could build a woodsy place in the sun with palm trees and a rose garden. The California bungalow, whatever its size or quality of workmanship, was the closest thing to a democratic art that has ever been produced. Even when it became a high-art product, it was as much a tribute to the carpenters who lovingly put together the wood details as the architects who designed them. The high-art Gamble House and the low-art bungalow both convey a message that you can do it yourself if you only have the moral conviction. In the bungalow court - another of Southern California's great inventions - which started around 1910 in Pasadena, the advantage of the bungalow was reduced to dollhouse-like dwellings which still managed to convey the sense of the single family dwelling set in a garden." pp. 19 and 20
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"Southern California was deeply affected by the Depression of the thirties. Ironically, it is for this reason that the area has so many outstanding examples of Streamline and Classical Moderne buildings. The Depression was generally catastrophic to the building industry. But one operation that was not curtailed was the building of moving-picture palaces, the cheap movie being one of the few luxuries of the masses. Even more important to architecture was public building, stimulated by the United States Public Works Administration (PWA), which built schools, libraries and post offices in order to give people work. Its companion relief organization was, of course, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) whose Arts Project engaged in the revolutionary act of giving work to artists. The results of the activities of these federal agencies are everywhere, especially in the Classical Moderne (PWA Moderne) mode." p. 26.
" . . .
"The war years also set the stage for an increased dispersal of population. In 1941 the Los Angeles Regional Planning Commission drew up the basic guidelines for development in the next quarter century. Los Angeles was not supposed to be a classical city, with one or two centers but a complex entity with a variety of commercial and industrial centers. The region was to continue to stress the single-family house. To realize this scheme, the private automobile was to be cultivated as the major means of transportation. All this meant a complete devotion to freeways. . . . By the seventies when the building tapered off due to the economy and a growing skepticism, almost everyone in Los Angeles was less than four miles from a freeway, the goal of the transportation experts." p. 27
"Santa Monica Freeway 1961 - 1966" p. 30
"37. Santa Monica Fwy. 1961 - 66; Lammers, Reed & Reece, engineers.
"It begins with a swoop through a tunnel just before you get to the pier and stretches across the county to West Covina. One of the most spectacular interchanges in the word, best observed from the surface streets, is where it intersects the San Diego Fwy., just outside Santa Monica.
[At some date the name Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Hwy. was added and it stretched across the country, replacing Rte. 66.]
"38. Santa Monica Pier 1909-1921; City of Santa Monica Engineers, End of Colorado.
"One of the real joys of Santa Monica, rain or shine. You can still drive or walk out to the end. On weekends the railings are lined with people fishing or just looking. Restaurants, curio shops and amusement palaces line the south side of the pier. But the hit architecturally and musically is the merry-go-round with [a] 1900 Wurlitzer automatic organ whooping it up on weekends and during fine summer days." pp. 57 & 58
"39. City Hall 1938; Donald B. Parkinson and J.M. Estep, Main St. just S of Fwy.
"Classic Moderne with mosaic tile entrance."
"40. Horatio West Court 1919; Irving Gill, 140 Hollister"
"Just a few years ago this small apartment complex seemed doomed to decay and vandalism. Then a group of real friends of architecture bought these apartments and began restoring them and living in them. We cheer these preservationists, especially since this was one of Gill's most imaginative and successful designs. [photo]
"41. Merle Norman Bldg. 1935-36; attrib. George Parr, NE cor. Main & Norman
"A large and delightful mixture of Streamline and Zigzag Moderne, this remodeled building preserves the chrome strips which were the trademark of Moderne design." p. 58 [photo]
"42. Parkhurst Bldg. ca. 1925, NW cor. Main & Pier
"This building with its beautiful brick work might have come out of old Seville. Evidently it was once an automobile showroom. At the moment it is in desperate need of restoration.
"43. Faust House ca. 1905, 2911 4th
"The Mission Revival at its best. Again, time and man have not dealt kindly with this building. [photo]
"44. Vawter House ca. 1895 504 Pier
"Shingle style with a touch of Queen Anne decoration, this was the home of an early Santa Monica family and with its porch on two sides suggests the seaside resort that Santa Monica was and is." p. 59
"1. Store ca. 1937 Mid-block N side Rose, between 4th & 5th"
"A tiny building with an outsize oval window in the Streamline Moderne idiom. The building is being restored." p. 61