The Enduring Romance of Arts and Crafts Architecture

Perhaps the single most arresting image in “Greene & Greene” by Edward R. Bosley (Phaidon, $75, 240 pages) appears on the endpapers of the book--an extreme close-up of the woodwork in one of the architectural masterpieces by the firm of Greene & Greene. God is in the details, as another architect once quipped, and the intricate joinery in a Greene & Greene house illustrates exactly why the work of these two gifted brothers is not merely celebrated but venerated.

Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene brought the Arts and Crafts movement in art and architecture to the West Coast at the turn of the last century. They may have been born in the Midwest, trained in the beaux-arts tradition at MIT, and apprenticed in Boston, but they came to California to make a living. And it was here that they found a few wealthy patrons whose homes are today regarded as treasures of a defining moment in American architecture.

The Greenes were craftsmen in the literal sense. They worked in stone, tile and even adobe, but especially in wood because these materials lend themselves to the human touch and the human scale. Yet they embraced an aesthetic that was expensive and demanding--they chose exotic woods and they designed elaborate detailing that turned a house into a work of art. That’s why the joinery in a Greene & Greene house is so iconic of their style and their philosophy--a Greene & Greene house was hand-built.

Today, the Greene & Greene houses scattered around Southern California are objects of adoration that goes beyond academic interest or even nostalgia. The Gamble House in Pasadena, for example, is almost a shrine, and the Huntington Library maintains an extensive collection of decorative arts designed by the Greene brothers.

Few people today know the work of the Greene brothers as intimately as Bosley. He is the director of the Gamble House and is active in the conservation of architectural masterpieces. Although he approaches his subject from a scholarly stance, he does not ignore the powerful allure of their architecture on readers who do not know or care about the technical intricacies.

“In an era of mass marketing, machine-driven production and instantaneous global communication,” observes Bosley, “it is sometimes comforting to be immersed, however briefly, in an environment that soothes the sense with its rootedness in nature and the echo of a slower-paced society.”

“Greene & Greene” has become a collective term in architectural history, one that identifies a style rather than a couple of architects. But Bosley manages to conjure up the Greene brothers in flesh and blood, and he allows us to see the hearts and minds behind the handiwork that is so richly and abundantly displayed in his book.

“[Charles] processed daily stimuli into a particular artistic vision: rocks in a stream bed, trees on the landscape, images in books of faraway temples and cliff-side castles all contributed to the firm’s unique aesthetic,” explains Bosley. “Henry organized and transformed his brother’s visions into practical, buildable form.”

Indeed, the differences in style and skill between the two eventually led to the breakup of the firm--Charles vowed to stop “prostituting his art” and retreated to Carmel, and Henry began to accept independent commissions. Significantly, neither one “play[ed] into the hands of Modernism,” as Bosley puts it, and so “they remained stubbornly on the periphery of changing trends for the rest of their careers.” By the time they died in the mid-’50s, their work had been recognized for what it was: “a fresh, regional design language for Southern California,” as Bosley sums up, “when it was needed most.”

Appropriately enough, Bosley’s book is a thing of beauty too. With hundreds of plans and drawings, illustrations and photographs, “Greene & Greene” manages to show us where their architecture originated, how and why it works, and where it fits in architectural history. At the same time, it is a lush, opulent and tantalizing book that may send readers on the road in search of the local houses.

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West Words looks at books related to California and the West. It runs every other Wednesday.