1385 El Mirador Dr
Pasadena, CA 91103, USA

Merwyn C. Gill House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

The Gill House is one of Buff, Straub and Hensman’s masterworks.
This large, well-appointed house is distinctive within the firm’s canon for two reasons. First, the unusually intense, productive, and friendly collaboration between architect and client led to the architectural integration of state-of-the-art plastics that the client developed as a result of technologies he invented and/or refined for the World War II effort, with the firm’s more typical (and far more low-tech) palette of natural materials such as wood, brick and stone.

This house is one of the firm’s masterworks. It is distinctive within the firm’s canon because it demonstrates the successful integration of complex state-of-the-art commercial and industrial products and materials into the firm's standard palette of wood, glass and stucco joined with simple connections. Additionally, these new materials, such as daylighting roof panels, were used not just once in the construction of the house, but were sometimes replaced when a new material invented by Mr. Gill was deemed to be possibly more robust for a particular application. These subtle changes were made in close collaboration with the architects, first with Conrad Buff, later with Don Hensman and today with Dennis Smith. This collaboration of more than half a century represents an on-going attitude of continued optimism; a casual, "let's-see-what-happens" approach; and the high value both client and architect placed on experimentation. These three qualities are associated not just with mid-century Modernism but especially with the postwar USC/Pasadena "School of Architecture" that fostered collaboration and experimentation.

The attitude of the inventor/owner, M.C. Gill,' is casual with regard to those post-war plastics in the sense that he was never averse to changing things as new products devised by his firm became available and were deemed superior or worthy of investigation. This attitude where materials were not deified or considered as too precious to tamper with (a very Modernist approach based on an experimental attitude to materials and methods) coexisted easily with a respect and love for fine natural materials and their inherent worth and beauty. Gill, or “M.C.” as he is usually called, loved tinkering on the house, as Buff did as well: in a way, this was a very malleable “machine for living,” to paraphrase Le Corbusier. (Though 97 years old, this USC grad ’37 still goes to work at his firm, now world renowned for its innovations in plastics used in the aerospace and airline industries.)

Finally, the house also demonstrates the attention to integrating the building and the experience of architecture into the site so characteristic of the work of Buff, Straub, & Hensman. Conrad Buffs insistence on this commanding but very private 1.4-acre site, which contains its own prospect as well as a small ravine (rather than other nearby, larger sites), illustrate the architect’s perennial concern for the “genius loci” of a specific setting for a specific client.

The Gill House exemplifies a seamless integration between the woodsy, easy, disarmingly apparent informality of the Buff, Straub, & Hensman tradition and the application of precise, state-of-the-art materials that today might be termed “technology transfer.” The house demonstrates an exceptionally quality of design, is the work of a master architect, retains its integrity, and conveys its historical significance.

Significance—Conclusion
Criterion C- Eligible
As demonstrated above, the Gill House, a single-family house designed by master architects Buff, Straub and Hensman meets the registration requirements as outlined in the MPS. It has retained to a high degree the respective required aspects of integrity, seen in its retention of character-defining features. It is an excellent example of the firm’s body of work, as well as embodying the larger architectural concerns and expressions of Pasadena’s “Recent Past” as described in the Context Statement. ^ It is an outstanding example of the integration of high-tech materials developed as a response to World War II into a palette of materials more characteristic of Arts and Crafts architecture but in an architectural form and expression unique to Mid-Century Modernism as realized in Southern California, Los Angeles, and Pasadena. It is significant as demonstrating innovation in residential Modernism within the MPS period of significance, 1964. Therefore, it is eligible to qualify for listing under Criterion C, Architecture and Design, at the local level of significance, with a period of significance of 1948 - 1968.

Criterion Consideration G- Eligible
As demonstrated above, the Gill House is of exceptional importance in the work of Buff, Straub & Hensman for three reasons: high quality of design, application of innovative materials, and as an example of the firm’s versatility with design. The house exemplifies an exceptionally high quality of design, distilling the firm’s values toward site and setting and their philosophy of residential architecture into this residence. It embodies the “can do” post-World War II attitude by both client and architect in two ways: the first an industrialist applying state-of-the-art wartime materials for peacetime use; and, the other, Conrad Buff and his colleagues, war veterans who sought challenges through innovation in architecture. The desire of the client to include the products of his work into his residence presented a challenge to the architects, who were ultimately able to develop a means to use this material in the design. The use of plastics in roofing and wall panels for the Gill House represented a breakthrough for the firm by altering their typical design practices to incorporate specific requests by the client. This versatility would prove beneficial later in the firm’s career when changes to the building code resulting from seismic and energy concerns required modernist architects to drastically change the form and structure of building designs. The Gill House is an early example of the firm’s ability to adapt to new and changing requirements.

For these reasons, the residence meets Criterion Consideration G