Toward a Simpler Way of Life: The Arts and Crafts Architects of California

Description

This book covers early work by a large group of architects who could be classified as California Arts-and-Crafts designers. Some, like Bernard Maybeck, are well-known to most architects. Others are new to me. The projects selected by the editor are not at all familiar and some are quite lovely, such as the cover project, the Evans House by Louis Christian Mullgardt, built in 1907. My primary interest is in the last quarter of the book titled "The Second Generation." These are architects from the mid-20th century who worked in a contemporary version of the arts-and-crafts style, using a lot of wood and elegant detailing to create buildings with a warm appeal. However, each of these architects is illustrated with only two or three projects and the photographs, in keeping with the historic photos of the earlier work, are all small and printed in sepia tone only. Although it is nice to see these otherwise unfamiliar projects, the brevity of the text and the limited selection of projects was disappointing to me. In summary, this is a handsome book of fairly limited appeal that whets my appetite for a more complete and better-illustrated book on the so-called Second Generation.