page_title: Gamble House (Pasadena, California)
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Gamble House (Pasadena, California) / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: Entrance doors to the Gamble House. Photo by Jim Heaphy.
context_page_description: The Gamble House, also known as the David B. Gamble House, is an iconic American Craftsman home in Pasadena, California, designed by the architectural firm Greene and Greene. Constructed in 1908–09 as a home for David B. Gamble of the Procter & Gamble company, it is today a National Historic Landmark, a California Historical Landmark, and open to the public for tours and events.
context_section_description: Originally built as a winter residence for David and Mary Gamble, the three-story Gamble House is commonly described as America's Arts and Crafts masterpiece. Its style shows influence from traditional Japanese aesthetics and a certain California spaciousness born of available land and a permissive climate. The Arts and Crafts Movement in American Craftsman style architecture was focused on the use of natural materials, attention to detail, aesthetics, and craftsmanship.
  The house is located on a grassy knoll overlooking Pasadena's Arroyo Seco, a broad, seasonally dry river bed. Because of the Gambles’ attraction to the environment, the Greenes designed the house to complement the rustic setting. The house's design reflected the Gambles' love of nature as flowers and trees were brought to the interior—creating pictures in wood, metal, art glass, and semi-precious stone. The building itself appears enmeshed with the landscape, achieved by a blend of man-made materials such as brick and rough dash-coat stucco and natural materials such as granite river stones and creeping fig that grows up onto the foundations of the terrace and steps.
  The house displays a strong influence of Japanese architecture. The abstraction of clouds and mist as well as the other "oriental" characteristics applied to the house's doors, windows, screens, beams, chair, lanterns, and more were another way that the house showed its emphasis on nature as "forms found in nature are the inspiration for these patterns."
  Another way the Greenes showed off the Gamble House's emphasis on nature was through the "theme of three," which was composed of three components that could be seen in every room. The theme of three grouped objects together, sometimes symmetrically arranged, but often not. The use of asymmetry alongside the classical balance reflects nature's welcoming of variety in proportions.
caption: The three entry doors of the Gamble House
exif: {"Image DateTime": "2016:10:11 17:42:35", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "9/5", "Image GPSInfo": "4006", "Image Model": "HTC6545LVW", "Image ImageWidth": "3625", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ImageLength": "2350", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image Software": "Google", "Image ExifOffset": "212", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image Make": "HTC", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "0", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "0", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:10:11 11:36:50", "EXIF FNumber": "9/5", "EXIF FocalLength": "229/50", "EXIF ApertureValue": "169/100", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "076980", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3000", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "26", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "814", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0/0", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4000", "EXIF SubSecTime": "076980", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7001/1000", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:10:11 11:36:50", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3976", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "3", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/128"}