Gill, Louis J., (Louis John Gill), 1885-1969

Biographical Note

Formally part of the Arts and Crafts movement, Irving J. Gill is also considered by some to be the pre-eminent American architect of the Modernist era. Born April 26, 1870 in Tully New York, Irving J. Gill received no formal education but he began studying architecture under Ellis G. Hall in Syracuse New York. In 1890 he moved to Chicago where he worked with Joseph L. Silsbee. He then obtained a job in the distinguished office of Dankmar Adler & Louis Sullivan where he worked as a draftsman under Frank Lloyd Wright. Adler and Sullivan advocated for a reductionist aesthetic that attracted architects such as Adolph Loos who visited the Chicago Offices. Gill worked on Sullivan's Transportation Building for the 1893 World's Columbian exposition.

In 1893, after doctors suggest that he move to a drier climate to fend off poor health, Gill moved to San Diego. He developed professional partnerships with Joseph Falkenham, William Sterling Hebbard, and his nephew Louis J. Gill. During his partnership with William Hebbard, the dominant use of Arts and Crafts elements are consistent throughout his work and would remain so until as early as 1907, when an anti-ornament cubist design emerges. In 1910 Gills designs for Bishop's school fuse minimalist Modernism with Mission Revival. Gill submitted an essay for The Craftsman in 1916 in which he wrote, "Any deviation from simplicity results in a loss of dignity. Ornaments tend to cheapen rather than enrich, they acknowledge inefficiency and weakness."

Gill Married Mrs. Marion Waugh Brashears at the age of 58 on May 28, 1928. Often described as a progressive architect interested in "social architecture," Gill concentrate on creating affordable reliable housing to working class people. He lived on site and involved the inhabitants during supervision of construction for the Rancho Barona Indian reservation (1932-33), worked with city officials to develop housing for Mexican families in Ensenada, Baja California, and prior to his death, housing for the unemployed in Santa Barbara.

Gill died at the age of 66 on October 7, 1936 in Carlsbad, California.

Irving J. Gill, "The Home of the Future: The New Architecture of the West: Small Homes for a Great Country," The Craftsman (May 1916): 140-51, 220.

From the guide to the Irving John Gill Collection, Bulk, 1870-1936, 1870-1936, (Architecture & Design Collection)