not to yield

Biltmore Hotel, Montecito

Biltmore Hotel, Montecito

Reginald Johnson practiced architecture in Southern California and beyond for roughly forty years.  His career spanned the most transformative era yet in American history, beginning before the First World War and winding down just before the boom time expansion of the 1950’s.  His collaborators included Gordon Kaufmann, A. E. Hanson, Clarence Stein, and the Olmsted brothers.  His work influenced architects of all imaginable stripes and trajectories, from Myron Hunt to Richard Neutra.

Johnson thrived as an architect in every available scale, market, and context.  His greatest contributions were, however, more to the places that he helped make, architectural and urban, than to his own aggrandizement.  His work is exemplary for professionals and patrons alike.  His achievements tell more of his time and place, and the people who made them possible, than of himself.

In transformative and turbulent times, Reginald Johnson offered a wealth of work that quietly stands ready for the critic’s laurel while offering daily inspiration to what is arguably the broadest office in Southern California.  This is democratic architecture.

Here is a celebration of some of Reginald Johnson’s most important California projects:

United States Post Office, Santa Barbara

United States Post Office, Santa Barbara

The following are some of Reginald Johnson's most significant works and collaborations, with attribution where available:

Reginald Davis Johnson, Architect: Projects and Collaborations

  • H. Page Warden House, Pasadena, CA, 1910
  • Walter M. Rose House, Pasadena, CA, 1911
  • Reginald D. Johnson House, Pasadena, CA, 1911
  • John McWilliams Jr. House, Pasadena, CA, 1912
  • Ramsey House, Pasadena, CA, 1913
  • W.F. West House, South Pasadena, CA, 1913
  • Pierre E. Letchworth House, Covina, CA, 1913
  • Mrs. Henry H. Lissner House, Los Angeles, CA, 1913
  • James Slauson House, Azusa, CA, 1913
  • East Colorado Street Theater, Pasadena, CA, 1914
  • St. Saviour's Chapel, Harvard Westlake, Los Angeles, CA, 1914
  • T.L. Duque House, Los Angeles, CA, 1914
  • Frederick Sherman House, Coronado, CA, 1915
  • Reginald D. Johnson House #2, Pasadena, CA, 1915
  • R.W. Rives House (Casa del Sueno), Montecito, CA, 1916
  • Annandale Golf Club, Pasadena, CA, 1917
  • Tod Ford House, Pasadena, CA, 1917
  • E.C. Thiers House, Pasadena, CA, 1918
  • Edwin Gould Hacienda, Montecito, CA, 1918
  • John Percival Jefferson Estate (Miraflores), Montecito, CA, 1918, AIA Gold Medal - First Awarded in Southern CA
  • Landreth House (Oak Knoll), Pasadena, CA, c. 1918
  • D.F. Paxton House, Pasadena, CA, 1919, AIA Southern CA Honor Award
  • Gavit House (Lotusland), Montecito, CA, 1919
  • Max Fleischmann House, Summerland, CA, 1920
  • Wigmore House, Pasadena, CA, 1920
  • St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral Pershing Square Project, Los Angeles, CA, 1920
  • St. John's Church Competition Project, Los Angeles, CA, 1921
  • Harvard School Dining Hall, Los Angeles, CA, 1921
  • Edward Lowe House (El Eliseo), Montecito, CA, 1923
  • All Saint's Episcopal Church, Pasadena, CA, 1923
  • Santa Barbara City Hall Project, Santa Barbara, CA, 1923
  • Hale Solar Laboratory, San Marino, CA, 1924
  • Griffith House (Oak Knoll), Pasadena, CA, 1924
  • St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, Los Angeles, CA, 1924, Demolished 1979
  • San Marcos in the Desert Housing Project, Miami, AZ, 1924
  • Pasadena Civic Center Competition Project, Pasadena, CA, 1924
  • Curtis Cate House, Carpinteria, CA, 1925
  • Woodward House, Birmingham, AL, 1925
  • La Valencia Hotel, La Jolla, CA, 1925
  • Flitridge Riding Club, La Canada Flintridge, CA, 1925
  • Palos Verdes Ranch House, Palos Verdes, CA, c. 1925    
  • Chapel of St. Simon & St. Jude, Alhambra, CA, 1926
  • Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles, CA, 1926
  • Harold S. Chase House (Las Terrasas), Hope Ranch, CA, 1927, AIA Southern CA Honor Award
  • Biltmore Hotel    Montecito, CA, 1927, Silver Medal Architectural League of NY
  • Wyant D. Vanderpool House, Fishers Island, NY, 1928
  • Frederick P. Warren House, Evanston, IL, 1928
  • Harry J. Bauer House, Pasadena, CA, 1928
  • Santa Barbara (Cate) School for Boys, Carpinteria, CA, 1929
  • Robert J. Baldwin House, Montecito, CA, 1929, Westmont College Admin Building
  • William R. Dickinson House, Hope Ranch, CA, 1929
  • Sydney R. Francis House, Pasadena, CA, 1929
  • La Pumada, House, Montecito, CA, c. 1929
  • Santa Barbara Riding & Hunt Club, Hope Ranch, CA, 1930
  • Dickinson House Gardener's Cottage, Hope Ranch, CA, 1930, Presidential Medal - Best Small U.S. House
  • UCLA Chancellor's Residence, Westwood, CA, 1931
  • Lester Baldwin House, Pasadena, CA, 1931
  • Clayton Demotte House, Santa Barbara, CA, 1931
  • C.H. Jackson House, Montecito, CA, 1931
  • St. Alban's Chapel, Westwood, CA, 1931, Memorial to his Father
  • Kimbell/Magnus House, Montecito, CA, 1933
  • Seely W. Mudd House, San Marino, CA, 1934
  • Mrs. William Andrews Clark Estate, Santa Barbara, CA, 1936
  • United States Post Office, Santa Barbara, CA, 1937
  • Rancho San Pedro Public Housing, San Pedro, CA, 1939
  • Harbor Hills Housing Project    Lomita/San Pedro, CA, 1941
  • Baldwin Hills Village Housing Project    Los Angeles, CA, 1942, AIA 25 Year Award
  • Reginald Johnson House #3    Pasadena, CA, 1947
  • Los Angeles Opera House Project, Los Angeles, CA, 1948
  • Malcolm McNaughton House, La Canada Flintridge, CA, Undated
  • J. L. Severance Estate, Pasadena, CA, Undated
  • Ben R. Meyer House, Beverly Hills, CA, Undated

Selected Available Attributions

1.  “The Better Homes Manual by Blanche Halbert.”  Better Homes in America, Inc.  1931.  The University of Chicago Home Economics Series.  Lydia J Roberts, Ed.  chestofbooks.com.    StasoSphere, 2007-2009.  (06 May 2012, http://chestofbooks.com/architecture/Better-Homes/index.html)

2.  Clark, Alson.  “Reginald D. Johnson: Regionalism and Recognition”.  Johnson Kaufmann Coate, Partners in the California Style.  Belloli, Jay, Alson Clark, Jan Furey Muntz, Stefanos Polyzoides.  Scripps College. Capra Press, 1992.

3.  Blessed Buildings, “The Little Church at the Base of Pound Hill.”  Paradise Leased.  Steve Vaught, 2010-12.  (06 May 2012, http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/blessed-buildings-the-little-church-at-the-base-of-pound-cake-hill/)

4.  Gates, Thomas P.   “THE PALOS VERDES RANCH PROJECT: Olmsted Brothers' Design Development For A Picturesque Los Angeles Suburban Community Of The 1920s.”  Architronic,    Kent State University Libraries and Media Services. Thomas P. Gates. 1997.  (06 May 2012, http://corbu2.caed.kent.edu/architronic/v6n1/v6n1.03a.html)

5.  Newcomb, Rexford. “Mediterranean Domestic Architecture in the United States.”  Acanthus Press.  New York, 1999.

gaz