The herald., 1895-03-10

adobe? Well, they are many; but the
three most important are, in their order,
the non-conducting wall, the patio, the
veranda.
Or, to put it less from the architects
standpoint and more from that OF the
home maker, Comfort, Security, Pictur-
sequences. These are only three words;
but they are words that come in among
the first principles of home building.
There is only one consideration which has
precedence OF them-and that is shelter
Now there is no more practical rea-
son why we should adopt here the exterior
lines OF the Americanized Moresque
architecture than the logic OF association
OF history and romance. That side APP
peals to folk who escaping from their
Eastern forts against weather, come here
and-rent fiat. Nor to those who in
hict colonial mansion, invented for and
fit for the heat Of fifty-acre park, upon
a fifty foot lot. But there are people who
do neither. And if logic cannot, comfort
and health sometimes may direct the
armor OF precedent.
1t is a common complaint that houses in
Southern California are not adequately
warmed--which means, rather, that they are
not properly put beyond need OF warming.
1t is not cold here, but in winter it feels
cold. The variation in temperature be
tween sunshine and dark is startling for
so mild a climate-and is the inevitable
the exuberance OF our soil, despite our
nearness to the sea, our air is the desic-
ated air OF the deseTt-and that is pre-
cisely why it is SO well worth living in.
But radiation is radiation. In winter"
many oldtimers-and nearly all new
comers-feel some need of an evening fire
in the average house. The noon heat of
summer and the night chill OF winter
strike through these beautiful cheap
frames almost as through so many tents.
A properly built abode or quasi-adobe
would never be sunstruck inside, nor ever
have real need OF artificial heating. The
thick walls would hold the room tempera-
ture, the year round, inside total range
of ten degrees. 1t would be not the de-
generate and devitalized atmosphere OF
artificial heating, but natural safe,
salubrious air.
The patio or inner court, and the portal
or grand veranda, are topics large and
by themselves-and so they shall have,
later. They are of prime value as to both
comfort and picturesqueness. Even the
tile roof and the jalousie deserve atten-
ton apart. But the largest lesson of all
the adobe is the massive, non conduct
ing wall. Its equivalent cannot be gained
by brick wall two feet thick; because
while adobe is obstinately dry, all brick
absorbs moisture greedily. In ordinary
masonry, brick is far too damp for this
climate. But special treatment wholly
overcomes this intrinsic fault. An
eght-nch brick wall plastered outside
with cement; then an air space Of what
you WILL if only two inches; then an in
ner brick wall, four inches thick, 'furred"
on the inside to remove the finishing
plaster an inch from the brick--and there
you have a house as absolutely free from
dampness as was ever constructed.
You also get what is a most genial
ura in nv md fafil hoff
by widening the air space-the recessed
window seat. When you build that way,
the hottest weather ever seen in the
Southwest will not dull the delicious cool
ness of your rooms; nor the coolest wealth
er that befalls us make you shiver in your
own parlor. The added cost of this over
the usual mode of brick construction is
tritiing.
Solid cement, which has been tried here,
is also effective, but not quite so bone
dry. In either material, however, you
gain the precious equability of tempera-
ture. In either, Furthermore, house can
be made just as nearly fire proof as it is
possible for dwelling to be. That class
of construction is the best fire insurance
policy ever written on a home. If the
Spanish window be added-and it is COM
paratively more decorative and more pic
turesque than anything in new American
architecture-the house can also be made
practically burglar proof.
Aside from these material advantages
which are also wholly an advance in art
I know o. no law, human or divine,
which bids even an intelligent being from
being artistic Los Angeles is beautiful
city, but no man who has travelled can
call it picturesque. 1t would be even more
beautiful if it we've picturesque in sound
ways, of course; for tatters and tumble
downs are not the only artistic effects.
Nor are gingerbread" and millwork the
chief means to beautify. 4
To my knowledge of ten years, the first 4
architect in this section to project upon
his draughtsman paper that useful if
questionable material which certain
great painter mixed with his pigments
was young man who began modestly
in this city about seven years ago.
| am glad to name him-Summer p