Mr. Smith Builds His Dream House
George Washington Smith’s picturesque homes continue to define Santa Barbara’s unmistakable style.
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One man's poison is another man’s meat. So claims an old Spanish proverb, which might well add that one man’s horror is another man’s history. Residents of the architecturally blessed town of Woodside, Calif., near Palo Alto, have in recent years grappled with this tender irony, as one of the Golden State’s leading entrepreneurs seeks to demolish the residence of one of its most prominent pioneers.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Apple Computer cofounder Steve Jobs, who purchased the 6-acre
Daniel C. Jackling estate in 1984, has described the 17,000-square-foot home
that occupies the property as “one of the biggest abominations of a house I’ve
ever seen.” Jobs’ disgust notwithstanding, the Spanish Colonial Revival
structure qualifies for the California Historic Register and, thus, for
protection under the state’s Environmental Quality Act. An intimate of banker
J.P. Morgan, Jackling, who commissioned the house in 1925, revolutionized the
mining industry with a patented process for removing copper from low-grade ore.
Yet it is the prominence of the home’s original owner that has spurred local
preservationists more than its architect, whose very name chimes with historical
allusion: George Washington Smith. (Click image to enlarge)The name does not impress Jobs, who, in statements to Woodside’s planning commission, has said that, although he studied architecture, had never heard of George Washington Smith, adding that he could build something far more historically interesting in its place. Others disagree, however. “Smith’s work is among the best of the period architecturally, not only in that [Spanish Colonial Revival] tradition but any tradition,” says Los Angeles architect Marc Appleton of Appleton Associates, who published George Washington Smith: An Architect’s Scrapbook. “He did wonderful houses and really had a wonderful feel for space.”
In Santa Barbara—far south of the land of silicon, where the predominant aesthetic tends toward septic, Zen-like minimalism—to contemplate demolition of a Smith home is inconceivable. In this seaside enclave, discriminating buyers seek out Smith’s homes, of which around 50 were constructed from 1919 to 1930. “In our community, quite a high percentage of buyers look for the older homes,” notes Harry Kolb of Sotheby’s International Realty, who specializes in significant properties in the area. “They used to pay a 10 or 15 percent premium for Smith, and I think it may be even more now. You can’t say the same of other architects. Richard Neutra’s work has just exploded. We don’t have many of his homes here, but in Los Angeles, he’s the flavor of the era. Ten or 15 years ago, you couldn’t give those homes away. But the opposite is the case with Smith. He has always been popular and, if anything, is getting more so.”
