Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Gamble House : By Greene & Greene

Pasadena, California, United States
Greene & Green
Post By:Kitticoon Poopong
Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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The Gamble House was designed in 1908 by architects Greene & Greene. It was commissioned by David and Mary Gamble, of Cincinnati, Ohio, as a retirement residence.
Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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David Berry Gamble, a second generation member of the Procter and Gamble Company in Cincinnati, had retired from active work in 1895, and with his wife, Mary Huggins Gamble, began to spend winters in Pasadena, residing in the area’s resort hotels.
Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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By 1907, the couple had decided to build a permanent home in Pasadena. In June of that year, they bought a lot on the short, private street, Westmoreland Place, passing up the more fashionable address, South Orange Grove, known at that time as “Millionaires’ Row.”
Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Douglas Keister
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At the same time the Gambles were selecting their lot on Westmoreland Place, a house designed by the firm of Greene & Greene was being built for John Cole on the adjacent property. Perhaps meeting the architects at the construction site, and certainly impressed with the other Greene & Greene houses in the neighborhood, the Gambles met with the brothers and agreed on a commission.
Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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The architects worked closely with the Gambles in the design of the house, incorporating specific design elements to complement art pieces belonging to the family. Drawings for the house were completed in February 1908, and ground was broken in March. Ten months later, the house was completed, the first pieces of custom furniture were delivered, and The Gamble House became home to David Gamble, his wife Mary, and two of their three sons: Sidney and Clarence. (Their son Cecil was 24 at the time, and on his own.) In addition, Mary’s sister, Julia Huggins, came from Ohio to live with the family. By the summer of 1910, all the custom-designed furniture was in place.
Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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David and Mary lived in the house until their deaths in 1923 and 1929, respectively. Julia lived in the house until her death in 1943. Cecil Huggins Gamble and his wife Louise Gibbs Gamble lived in the house beginning in 1946 and briefly considered selling it. They soon changed their minds, however, when prospective buyers spoke of painting the interior teak and mahogany woodwork white! The Gambles realized the artistic importance of the house and it remained in the Gamble family until 1966, when it was deeded to the city of Pasadena in a joint agreement with the University of Southern California School of Architecture.
Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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The drawings of the house were completed in February of 1908, the site ground-broken in March, and ten months later the house was completed and the first custom-built piece of furniture delivered. The family moved in immediately, and the house and all of it’s specially-designed furnishings were officially finished in 1910.
Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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The early projects of Greene and Greene reflected the traditional tastes of their clients, but in time they achieved recognition for developing the California bungalow to a high art, as well as for creating houses with the quality of fine furniture. The Gamble House represented an American-style which sat amidst an abundance of imitations and interpretations of classical European buildings, the influence for many mansions at the time. It was designed to be very suitable for the southern California climate, with a sleeping porch and beautiful transition spaces from the inside to outdoor patios, a garden and a pond.
Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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The developed style of Greene and Greene is very distinguishable in the design world, as their Japanese inspirations are incorporated into stain glass windows, details carved and formed with wood, joinery and joint pieces traditional to architecture in Japan. The emphasis on the horizontal line, the use of modular units, a taste for the asymmetrical, the absence of clutter, extensive areas of unpainted wood, a preponderance of natural and subdued colors, a close relationship with the outdoors were all key elements of Japanese architecture that are incorporated into the Craftsman style.
Photo © Courtesy of Mark Fiennes
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Mark Fiennes
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The strong ties to the outdoors are brought to the interior as well, through flowers and trees which are engraved in the windows, doors and lanterns. Indigenous Japanese shapes appear throughout the house, in the contour of the dining room table, the cloud lift in the transom bar of each window, the recessed handles on drawers and the ebony frame of the master bedroom furniture.
Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Mark Fiennes
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There are also European inspired aspects to the design; the cantilevered second story over the front terrace, window boxes and shingles on exterior walls, the long roof lines and Swiss-like exterior elevation south of the front door, the living room inglenook, and the Gothic fireplace in the den.
Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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The original patrons lived in the house until death, and it was continually passed down through the Gamble family until 1966, when it was almost sold to a family who intended to paint the interior teak and mahogany woodwork white. They immediately realized the artistic and architectural importance of this home and deeded it to the city of Pasadena in a joint agreement with the University of Southern California Department of Architecture. Tours are offered now, as the Gamble House is both a museum and a National Historic Landmark.
Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Mark Fiennes
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Mark Fiennes
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Mark Fiennes
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Photo © Courtesy of Tim Street-Porter
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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Photo © Courtesy of Alexander Vertikoff
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The Gamble House in Pasadena, California has been described as the ultimate bungalow and was recently featured in the PBS film Elbert Hubbard: An American Original. This short video takes you inside this architectural masterpiece built in 1908. For more information visit wned.org.
first floor plan--drawing © Courtesy of greatbuildings.com
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second floor plan--drawing © Courtesy of greatbuildings.com
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The people
Architects: Greene & Greene
Location: Pasadena, California
Project Year: 1908
References: Gamble House Website, Wikipedia: Gamble House, greatbuildings.com
Photographs: Alexander Vertikoff, Mark Fiennes, Tim Street-Porter

About Architects Charles and Henry Greene
Charles Sumner Greene (1868-1957) and Henry Mather Greene (1870-1954) were brothers born in Brighton, Ohio, now part of Cincinnati. The boys spent part of their childhood living on their mother's family farm in West Virginia while their father, Thomas, attended medical school in St. Louis, Missouri. The brothers developed a love of nature during those West Virginia years that would be ever-reflected in their art.
 

By the time the boys were teenagers, their father, now a respiratory physician, had moved the family to St. Louis and enrolled the boys in the Manual Training School of Washington University. Here, beginning in 1883 and 1884, respectively, they studied woodworking, metalworking, and toolmaking. The family lived in a small, poorly ventilated apartment during those years, and their father's professional concern with the need for sunlight and freely circulating fresh air would come to influence them later in their work.
Their father decided for them that the two should become architects, and at his urging, enrolled at the School of Architecture of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They grudgingly studied the traditional classic styles, hoping only to gain certification for apprenticeships with architecture firms upon graduation, which they accomplished — Henry finally settling in with the H. Langford Warren firm, and Charles with Winslow and Wetherell, among others.
Then in 1893, their parents, who had moved to the “little country town” of Pasadena, requested that their sons move out to California and join them. The brothers did so, and the cross-country trip proved fortuitous: while passing through Chicago, they stopped at the World’s Columbian Exhibition and for the first time saw examples of Japanese architecture. Their immediate admiration of the style would become a strong influence on their later designs.
Soon after their arrival in Pasadena, Charles and Henry set up shop together, and the architecture firm of Greene & Greene was born. Their art would culminate between 1907 and 1909 with the construction of the “ultimate bungalows” — one of which is the Gamble House in Pasadena.


Note>>Location in this map, It could indicate city/country but not exact address.

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