The Home of The Future: The New Architecture of the West: Small Homes for a Great Country

(Irving J. Gill: The Craftsman magazine for May 1916 )

We should build our house simple, plain and substantial as a boulder, then leave the ornamentation of it to Nature, who will tone it with lichens, chisel it with storms, make it gracious and friendly with vines and flower shadows as she does the stone in the meadow.

... There is something very restful and satisfying to my mind in the simple cube house with creamy walls, shear and plain, rising boldly into the sky, unrelieved by cornices or overhanging of roof, unornamented save for the vines that soften a line or creepers that wreathe a pillar or flowers that inlay color more sentiently than any tile could do.

ECONOMY AND SIMPLICITY IN CONCRETE HOUSE BUILDING

(Reed Robinson - pseudonym for Eloise Roorbach: Concrete Magazine)

Another feature which Mr. Gill makes a distinctive point in his work on residences, is the effect of reflected colors upon a white or neutrally tinted, unbroken surface. To the discerning observer of color the plain white surface is composed of delicate and changing hues which takes tones from the greens of the lawn or tree, the blue of the sky and the multiple shades of the varied flowers. The splashing warmth of crimson from a geranium bed, together with the varied lighting of morning or afternoon, clear or cloudy weather, produce effects upon these walls that are a delight to the eye.

Concrete Curves and Cubes

(The Independent, August 28, 1913)

Another point on which Mr. Gill bears hard is the delicacy of reflected colors upon a white, unbroken surface. This is too subtle for the average man, to whom a brick house is red and a whitewashed wall is simply white. To the observer of color, the white plain surface is composed of the most delicate and changing hues, taking tints from the green of the lawn, the shade of the tree, the blue of the sky, the crimson of the geranium bed, and with the varied lighting of morning and afternoon, clear weather and cloud, producing effects that are a delight to the trained eye.

A MODERNIST IN ARCHITECTURE

(Vogue Magazine: October 1916)

COLOR AS AN ACCESSORY

His love of color is shown, too, in the overmantel of a recent house, designed and wrought in the spirit that made the periods of the French Louis immortal. Instead of copying the over-worked fleur-de-lis and garlands of those periods, he took as his Motif the leaf and berry of the California holly, for it is part of his creed that we should consciously assume the attitude of ancestor and not be content to remain perpetually the descendants of others. It is here that he joins hands with the futurists. He hopes gradually to combat our Puritanic fear of color and intends to introduce color more and more into his work. But he would not have color distract the eye from defects in the essentials, but merely enhance the beauty of otherwise perfect details. ------------------------------

NATURE, THE ARCHITECT'S PARTNER

Trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers this architect proves to be a hundred times more helpful to the architect then the jig-saw and all its endless litter of flimsy ornament, or the machine that fashions sheet metal into the form of carved stone. Fill makes nature a full partner in all his work, and assigns her a definite part. He leaves wide wall spaces for vines to cover with delicate tracery or deep arabesque, with shadow tinting and bold splashes of color. He counts on a rose hedge, an Italian cypress, a palm, or an oak tree for special service in the general scheme; and as time ripens his work, many who come to criticise remain to praise. His walled gardens are open-air additions to the house, charming in their privacy, a refuge from the street front with its din and distractions. His negation of the non-essential has resulted in a positive affirmation that use has a rare beauty, that beauty based on simplicity of line, bold mass, perfect proportion, and harmony between house and garden is more satisfying than in its more artificial and intentional forms. -----------------------------
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