This past week’s Arroyo Monthly, a free publication mailed mostly to homeowners in Pasadena, California, includes the following article by Michael Cervin on the increased popularity of Greene & Greene not just in Southern California but nationwide:
Architects Charles and Henry Greene are known around the world for
their striking Arts and Crafts homes, which so thoroughly punctuate the
Southern California landscape. It’s perhaps ironic then that the late
Henry Greene’s own home, the one he initially built for his
mother-in-law, was razed in 1968 and is now a parking structure.
Charles Greene’s home on Arroyo Terrace still stands. Thus fared the
personal residences of the architects whose names are more closely
associated with Pasadena than those of any of their peers. The brothers
built 75 structures in the Crown City during their career, mainly
custom residences, of which nearly 40 are still standing.“Other architects have enjoyed more famous careers,” noted Edward
Bosley, James N. Gamble Director of the Gamble House. “Others have
produced more buildings. Still others have earned more notoriety for
progressive designs that advanced the discipline of architecture. But
no other architects have left us with a more glowing legacy of beauty,
craft, livability and spirit than Charles and Henry Greene.”British architecture critic Reyner Banham, quoted in a book by
former Gamble House curator Randell Makinson, said that Greene &
Greene residences looked completely in their element in Southern
California, “and especially so in Pasadena – that it’s often difficult
to conceive of them as part of any nationwide, let alone worldwide,
movement. They seem so specific to that Arroyo Culture of which they
are the chief ornaments and the true treasure-houses.”Though the term “bungalow” is associated with the Greenes, most of
their best-known homes are not true bungalows, which were conceived in
India as modest one-story structures. Certainly the Greenes started out
designing homes for the common man. The Architectural Record referred
to their work in a 1906 essay: “The houses are largely successful
because they so frankly meet economic, domestic and practical
conditions. Their chief characteristics are their lowness, big
overhanging roofs, their shingled walls and the absence of
architectural ornament.”