Platt-Whitelaw Architects

Irving Gill

Revitalizing San Diego’s Historic Golden Hill House: A Fusion of Architectural Notoriety and Community Impact

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Our work on Golden Hill House, in San Diego’s Golden Hill neighborhood combines two of our favorite things: historic renovations and helping our community.

Originally designed by noted architect Irving Gill in 1895, and known as the George Garretson House, the Shingle style of architecture was progressive at the time of design. The house is now owned by the County of San Diego, and leased to a substance use provider for their program operations.

The substance use provider utilizes the house as a residential treatment program for women.

The Power of Architecture

We know that architecture has power, including the power to promote calming and healing. A beautiful, safe space can bring peace through a challenging experience. We want Golden Hill House itself to be part of the positive journey these women take.

“I appreciate that this project has a social-benefit aspect to it,” said Architect Randy Biegenzahn, AIA, LEED AP who is leading this project for us along with support from Principal Sandra Gramley, AIA, LEED AP. “People are getting help, and there’s an altruistic, societal benefit.”

The Improvements

The aesthetic upgrades for the house include a new paint scheme and dual glazed wood windows that match the original design of the house. We’re also repairing and replacing the exterior stairways and landings.

While not as noticeable, the livability upgrades include accessibility improvements, upgrading the HVAC system with a heat pump, updating the electrical system, and upgrading the fire alarm system.

Additionally, the house’s layout of living quarters upstairs and communal spaces downstairs requires fire zone separation doors and additional egress for the residential use.

Thank You Team

The design process is well underway and we’d like to acknowledge some of our wonderful subconsultants on this project, Turpin & Rattan for MPE, Nasland for Civil  and Aark as Structural Engineers. We anticipate construction starting for all these renovations and improvements in spring or summer of 2024.

We are grateful to the County of San Diego for the opportunity to work on a socially and culturally important project like Golden Hill House.

Photo by Architect Randy Biegenzahn. The photo is before.

San Diego History: Formative Architects and Architecture

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Calling all architecture enthusiasts! Want to cement your savvy-San Diegan status? Dazzle friends with interesting cocktail party conversation? Become a riveting tour guide for your out-of-town guests?

We’ve put together an overview of some of historic San Diego architects (some household names, some not), who designed notable places in San Diego. Feel free to bookmark this page so you can cram before your next social gathering. 😉

Let’s start with a big disclaimer. This list is not even remotely comprehensive. We’ve focused on architects who were designing San Diego structures in the 1960s and earlier, and primarily public-serving structures. Plus, we 100% acknowledge our bias in including our firm’s founder, Robert Platt.

Since we’ve also had a legacy of female ownership at Platt/Whitelaw, we’re shining the architecture spotlight first on a woman: Lilian J. Rice. This home-grown talent was born in 1889 in National City. She’s considered an early ecologist, and her understanding of the relationship between nature and architecture is evident in the Rancho Santa Fe Town Center, the ZLAC rowing club and the many homes she designed in La Jolla and Rancho Santa Fe.  Eleven of these are on the National Register of Historic Places.

A bit more ornate in their designs were the Quayle Brothers. Charles was born in 1865 and Edward in 1869. They were responsible for the San Diego Police Headquarters building downtown (now the renovated Headquarters at Seaport District), a couple of now-historic Gaslamp buildings, the North Park Theatre and the Cal Western School of Law (where, incidentally, Platt/Whitelaw Architects provided a face lift and some historic preservation work recently).

Skipping ahead a bit in time, a trio of very well-known contemporaries began designing in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries in San Diego. They were Irving Gill, William Templeton Johnson and Richard Requa.

Gill, who lived from 1870 to 1936, used to work alongside Frank Lloyd Wright under Louis Sullivan. Gill is credited with creating an original, regional modern style in San Diego. This style is manifested in his designs for the La Jolla Woman’s Club, the La Jolla Recreation Center, the Ellen Browning Scripps house (now part of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego – La Jolla), the First Church of Christ Scientist on Second Avenue and several houses in Bankers Hill. He also worked on the George W. Marston House and designed the Fountain at Horton Plaza Park, although these two structures are designed in a more historic style.

Requa apprenticed as a draftsman to Gill and was best known as the creator of the Southern California style of architecture, a mash-up of Spanish Eclectic style with influences from the Mediterranean region, Mexico, and Central and South America. He also designed the Darlington House in La Jolla, the County Administration Center (along with Johnson and others), the Old Globe Theatre (later rebuilt and modified after a 1978 fire) and the Del Mar Castle.

In addition to working on the team designing the County Administration Center, Johnson was responsible for designing downtown’s San Diego Trust & Savings building and Samuel L. Fox building, as well as the Francis Parker School, the La Jolla Public Library, La Jolla High School, the San Diego Museum of Art, the La Valencia Hotel and the Junipero Serra Museum.

A little later, Lloyd Ruocco (1907-1981), who attended San Diego High School, became the second most significant modernist architect in San Diego history, after Gill. He is famous for his post and beam construction with large expanses of glass.  In addition to designing the Fifth Avenue Design Center in Hillcrest and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, he was an advocate for social change and sound city planning. Some know him best as the co-founder, along with Esther Scott, of Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 (C-3), a San Diego citizens’ planning group started in 1961.

During approximately the same time period as Ruocco, Los Angeles architect William Pereira (1909-1989) designed the iconic, futuristic Geisel Library at UCSD, and Sim Bruce Richards (1908-1983) designed the Morley Field Tennis Club and the Mission Bay Aquatic Center.

It’s hard to talk about iconic San Diego architecture without mentioning Louis Kahn (1901-1974). Along with Luis Barragan (1902-1988), Kahn designed the Salk Institute, arguably one of the best places to view the San Diego sunset at equinox.

The next (and last) generation of significant architects we’re covering includes our very own Robert Platt (1921-1988), who’s noted mid-century designs include the Pearl Hotel in Point Loma and the Clairemont Library. Also of note is Robert Moser (1920-2015), who designed the Coronado Bridge, the Aztec Center at SDSU and Muir College at UCSD.

If you find yourself thinking in a very loud head voice, ‘hey, you forgot to mention so-and-so as a historic San Diego Architect!’, you’re probably right. Please feel free to write about so-and-so and link back to our article. The good news is that San Diego has so many cool structures, we could write for days about all the great architects involved…and so could you. Who will accept our challenge?

Photo by ARIS on Unsplash.