Greene & Greene

1. Greene & Greene California and the Craftsman Style

2. Between 1901 and 1916, a strong craft movement was sponsored and encouraged by The Craftsman, a monthly magazine edited by Gustav Stickley. The American crafts movement was based on the arts and crafts movement in England, led by William Morris and John Ruskin. It s underlying and defining premise was that true art evolves out of mastery of one’s craft, that craftsmanship and skilled hand labor were the best way of enhancing life. Louis Sullilvan and Frank Lloyd Wright were sympathetic to this point of view. Wright lectured and wrote on craftsmanship and he moved in the circles of the craftsmans’ clubs in Chicago. Strong interest developed in the craft movement on the west coast under four leading figures: Charles and Henry Greene, Irving Gill, and Bernard Maybeck. Their work was sometimes published in The Craftsman.

3. The craft movement was, therefore, predominantly a midwest and west coast movement. Earlier east coast expressions had produced shingle style houses in the 1880s and 1890s, such as those designed by H.H. Richardson in New England. By 1900, however, the east coast had pushed into Renaissance academicism and looked askance at the craft movement as provincial, unsophisticated, and gauche. This represents a curious situation: the basic conflict between east coast and frontier, supposed gentility versus supposed naivte, American as a province versus Europe as a model. Yet, the craft movement and its products have become a great source of national pride, have attracted more attention as authentic and international than the snobby academicism of the majority of east coast revival style architecture from the same period.

4. No matter what opinions existed at the turn of the century 20th century about the crafts movement, its importance is manifold: First of all, the craftsman approach postulated a comprehensive approach to design, running from the detail of interior furnishing to the layout of the garden. Second, all architectural and other detailing depended on the aesthetics arising from properties inherent to materials, construction methods and functional purpose, not just the refinement of taste and design sense. Third, it stressed a dependence on the traditions maintained in vernacular and folk building, not the images preserved by cosmopolitan buildings.

5. Fourth, the craftsman approach maintained an intense concern for nature, seen especially in the garden as a planned extension of the house, in the use naturalistic motifs, and the expression of the qualities of site in the design concept. Greene and Greene first practiced in the East Coast manner until about 1902. Then they switched to the characteristic vernacular style of board and shingle building by which they are now known. In an article in 1908, Architectural Record described the Greene brothers as “bungalow” designers. The bungalow, with deep roots in the 19th century, became a builder’s house type in the first decade of the 20th century and soon became a favorite domestic symbol and image of the house. (For a history of the bungalow, see the article by Clay Lancaster in the Art Bulletin, c. 1958.)

6. Architectural Record described the bungalow as follows: Its whole purpose is to minimize the distinction which exists between being inside and outside of four walls. The rooms of such a building should consequently be spacious, they should not be shut off any more than is necessary one from another, and they should be finished in wood simply designed and stained so as to keep as far as possible its natural texture and hue. The exterior, on the other hand, should not be made to count very strongly in the landscape. It should sink, so far as possible, its architectural individuality and tend to disappear in its natural background.

7. Its color, consequently, not matter whether it is shingled or clapboarded, should be low in key and should correspond to that of the natural wood. Its most prominent architectural member will inevitably be its roof, because it will combine considerable area with an inconsiderable height, and such a roof must have sharp projections and cast heavy shadows, not only for the practical purpose of shading windows and piazzas, but for the aesthetic one of making sharp contrasts in line and shade to compensate for the moderation of color. Its aesthetic character will necessarily be wholly picturesque; and it should be both surrounded by trees and covered so far as is convenient, with vines.

8. Gamble House, Pasadena, by Charles Sumner and Henry Mather Greene, 1906-09