February, i Q i 7 
33 
Irving J. Gill, Architect 
With walls, floors and roof of reinforced concrete, ^oindow and door casings of metal, and 
pergola of concrete and stone, the residence of Miss Ellen Scripps, at La Jolla, California, 
reaches the highest point in unhurnahle construction 
Wood studding, wood joists, wood lath, 
wood door and window frames, wood doors, 
wood baseboards, plate rails, picture mold¬ 
ings, wood mantelpieces, wood wainscoting, 
wood stairs and staircases, wood floors—all 
must go. It is a radical change, for these 
things are as the features of familiar 
friends. They have become a habit of 
thought, and we cling desperately to the 
fallacy that they are essential to the house 
that is our home. But truly it is quite as 
absurd to consider them essential to the 
home spirit as to say that the blue eyes or 
brown curls or freckled nose of a friend 
are the essence of friendship. 
Unburnable Materials 
Having thought so long in wood it is hard 
to think in other materials. Many must 
learn to do it gradually as we learn a new 
language word by word. There are already 
on the market materials and appliances 
that make it unnecessary for an inch of 
wood to be used in the construction of a 
house. The only element lacking is cour¬ 
age to face the revolution. There are metal 
studding and floor joists and lath, metal 
door and window frames and sash that do 
away with wood jambs and frames and 
sash and sills and floor and wall supports. 
There are composition lathings, even more 
resistant to heat than metal, and hollow tile 
does away with lath altogether and with¬ 
stands all heat. While metal is more readi¬ 
ly affected by heat than clay and other earth 
compositions, it is hardly likely that enough 
heat could be generated by the furnishings 
of an entirely fireproof room to weaken or 
buckle any metal in the walls, so these vari¬ 
ous materials will remain matters of per¬ 
sonal choice. There are metal doors, though 
these have not yet been specially adapted 
for house use with the exception of enam¬ 
eled iron doors for kitchen cupboards. 
Wood floors are doomed. It is incon¬ 
sistent to have fireproof walls and a floor 
that would catch fire from the ashes of a 
rug or table. The unburnable floor does 
even more to balk a fire than would the best 
of unburnable partitions. 
Unburnable floors are as old as the art 
of architecture. In those timberless coun¬ 
tries where civilization was born, tile, mar¬ 
ble, mosaic and concrete floors were used 
before wood was dreamed of as a building 
material save by most primitive peoples. 
These are coming again into use, and it is 
more than likely that new unburnable floor¬ 
ings will be invented when the demand for 
them becomes great enough. 
The concrete floor is the simplest and 
cheaper even than quarry tiles which have 
been used with charming effect in porches, 
courts and halls, but whose possibilities for 
floor use elsewhere inside the house are 
little realized. It has not gained greater 
popularity for the reason that it is yet in 
the comparative stage that rough board side¬ 
walk is to parquetry. But at least one for¬ 
ward-looking builder has brought concrete 
floors beyond the sidewalk stage, presaging 
what in time they may become. I have in 
mind concrete floors in several California 
homes, constructed scientifically flat on well 
prepared ground, eliminating the air space 
underneath and giving them an equable tem¬ 
perature. They are finished with color, 
rubbed and polished till they give to the eye 
the pleasure of old Spanish leather, of old 
{Continued on page 68) 
COLOR SCHEMES IN EXTERIOR PAINT 
Crisp Rules and Suggestions for Painting 
the New House and Re-Painting the Old 
I F, when about to paint the house, we are 
guided solely by taste, however excel¬ 
lent it may be, we shall fail in some degree 
of reaching perfect satisfaction unless we 
are guided by those rules which govern the 
correct application of paint and color. For 
example, the rule for a low, squatty house 
calls for light, cheerful coloring, for the 
simple reason that light colors increase the 
apparent height of the structure; on the 
other hand, dark colors will emphasize the 
want of height. 
When more than one color is used, the 
darkest should be the lowest, such as hav¬ 
ing a dark color on the first story, and a 
lighter color on the second. This rule is 
based on the well-known principle that dark¬ 
ness represents weight or solidarity, while 
lightness stands for the opposite quality. 
A light, airy structure will appear more 
substantial when painted in dark colors, 
but if the background is dark, then a light 
BY A. ASHMUN KELLY 
colored paint affords a pleasing relief. 
Where a small house is situated in a deep 
or dark landscape, attention should be paid 
to the matter of contrast. The city house, 
close to the street, and occupying a small 
lot, should be painted in quiet or subdued 
colors, with a dark trim. Summer houses, 
usually built for pleasure, or temporary use, 
appear to the best advantage when painted 
in distinctly light colors. 
In brick and stone buildings the window 
frames should be painted the color of the 
capstones and sills. For instance, a brick 
house, ornamented with limestone copings, 
should have the frames painted a grayish 
stone color of a light shade, with the sash 
either black or dark green, as preferred. 
A two-family house on a small lot re¬ 
quires a color scheme that will have the 
effect of causing the structure to recede 
rather than stand out. The square form 
suggests a rather modest coloring. 
In suburban places one should choose 
colors for his house that do not duplicate 
other color schemes nearby, no matter how 
much they may appeal to him. He should 
select colors that will harmonize with sur¬ 
rounding color schemes. This will result 
in a mutually satisfactory color display. 
Where dark green is employed for the 
trim it must not be used too sparingly, if 
the body is in white. Use it under the 
eaves, as well as on the other parts of the 
cornice, and on the window sashes, corner 
and baseboards, porch floors, porch rails, 
window blinds and shutters. 
When white paint is used it should be 
absolutely white. If a dark trim is used 
this will serve to make the white look still 
whiter. White lead is not in all cases white, 
some kinds being off color, but sun and 
weather in time bleach out the oil, which 
makes the paint whiter. To get a real white, 
{Continued on page 64) 
