Esther McCoy Irving Gill 1870-1936 Five California Architects, 1960, Reprinted in Marvin Rand Irving J. Gill: Architect 1870-1936, Gibbs Smith, Publisher: Salt Lake City, UT, Design, Ahde Lahti; Photographs, Marvin Rand, 2006, 238 pp. pp. 219-227, 2006a, 1960, 1914
"In 1914 Gill was commissioned to design a house in West Hollywood by Walter L. Dodge, whose fortune had come from the product Tiz, "for tired feet."
"The preliminary plans were dated August 10, 1914, but the house was not finished until 1916. This was due to the extraordinary amount of detailing and, perhaps, also to the war in Europe. The building covered 6,500 square feet, and there were over 1,100 square feet of porches. Compared to the approximate rectangle of most of Gill's houses, the plan was sprawling, with a porch cutting a U into the north side and a walled court (p. 226) taking a corner from the south. The court, reached through the French doors of the dining room and breakfast room, served as an unroofed living area. The interweaving of inner and outer space was well suited to living needs; and the floor plan was unusually fluid.
"The 300-square-foot entrance hall was one of Gill's most beautiful rooms. The walls were entirely paneled in boards of Honduras mahogany, so meticulously matched that they gave the impression of a single slab of richly patterned wood. Although, today, plywood produced by machine methods achieve a similar effect, the character of the room lay deeper than in the fine craftsmanship or the historical importance of the flush detailing.
"It was the light from the stairwell that gave the room much of its beauty. Entering through 10-foot-high windows, which filled the north wall, the light extended the upper spaces and determined the shape of the room. It warmed the wood to life, and emphasized the chasteness of the balustrade and the fine joinery of the handrail.
"The paneling of the first floor was continued in the second-floor hall as a wainscot. Another fine detail was the hall's flush storage cabinet for linens.
"The plan for the master bedroom was unusual for 1914. The bath tub, shower and toilet were placed in skylighted compartments, which could be entered from either of the two large dressing rooms. Storage cabinets and wardrobe closets filled two walls of each dressing room.
"In this reinforced concrete house, Gill accomplished what he had started out to do in 1908, when he first began his study of concrete construction as an art. It was to bring concrete to the architectural importance of stone.
"The Dodge house was not only a fulfillment, it was also a promise of change. The plan was freer than usual and the elevations were varied, puzzlingly so upon first encounter. The south elevation with its rhythm of arches did not predict the severe west elevation. The north side, with its deeply inset porch and the play of roof stack forms against the masses, showed a preoccupation with depth.
"The plan spread out in ranch-like fashion to include a raised swimming pool and garage. The romantic gardens to the north, with their fountains and loggia, gave way on the east to propagating sheds, a corral and pergolas in wooded settings.
"In the early forties, Theodore Dreiser lived across the street from the Dodge house and could often be seen strolling through the neglected grounds; his last book contains a description of a crumbling pergola overrun with vines.