Mark Mills

Education Professor · Post by **Education Professor** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 2:33 pm

Prairiemod recently featured the work of apprentice Mark Mills:

http://www.prairiemod.com/prairiemod/20 ... right.html

Although I find the work of Mills to be quite interesting, it is hard to find a great deal of information about him and his work. Does anyone have additional info, including photos? Did he leave his work with an archive?

Two sources of info that I know about: the book "Cottages on the Coast" which features one of Mills' A-frame designs, and the book NorCalMod which features a couple of his designs.

EP

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 4:02 pm

The Woods House is probably his best known work, often credited to Soleri without mention of Mills. But his two A-frame houses in Carmel and Big Sur are more interesting to me. Unfortunately, the Carmel house, which has been published several times, has been horribly enlarged and disfigured; the tiny cottage was in the heart of a pricey neighborhood that could not support such a modest affair, so it became immodest. Mrs. Nat Owings, as far as I know, still lives in the house in Big Sur designed for the "O" in SOM. That one is a gem. It sits precariously on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Driving south through Big Sur it can be seen from a great distance as a shining triangle on a great hump of cliff.
The June 1964 issue of HB has a cover story on a Carmel house he designed for himself. The roof consists of 2" x 3" set on edge, adjacent with only sheet aluminum for the exterior roofing. He seems often to have tried out new ideas for construction. The Journal of the Taliesin Fellows did an article on him some years ago. I believe he never married, so I don't know how his estate was dealt with. I hope it was saved.

george nichols · Post by **george nichols** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:27 am

Mills was married to Barbara for 53 years and had two daughters,Noel and Blase.

An interesting question I've never
found the answer to was why did Wright tell him to leave the Fellowship?

G.N.

Education Professor · Post by **Education Professor** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 5:17 pm

Mr. Grant,

The link below to the book Forgotten Modern: California Houses 1940-1970 by Hess and Weintraub shows some photos of the Owings house....both the photos and the design are truly remarkable!

http://books.google.com/books?id=7jPzUo ... 22&f=false

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 3:36 pm

You should see the view from the downstairs. The house is very near a sheer precipice, and from the lower level (beneath the A frame) all you see is sea, as the bathroom photo shows. The house labeled "Mills House #2" is the one on the cover of HB June, 1964. But the photo of the roof shows that the original sheet aluminum covering the 3"-thick roof has been replaced with shingles. Also note the large 14'-long beams alternating with slender strips of glass, much like Lautner's Schaffer House. Mills was a brilliant designer, and deserves a major tome.

Education Professor · Post by **Education Professor** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 7:56 pm

Mr. Grant, did you have the chance to visit Wild Bird while Ms. Owings was still living? I'm sure it was a great treat to visit such a breathtaking home.

I agree that Mills' design work is very deserving of a major tome. I do wonder if his work has been archived...I haven't been able to find any evidence of it so far.......

On a related note, below is a link to a residential listing of a Mills design in Oakhurst, CA:

http://www.ownerdatabase.com/property1456.htm

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 2:42 pm

I never had the opportunity to get any closer than PCH allowed, but there was an issue of HB that covered it extensively when it was new. Is it still in the family?

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:18 am

I'm wondering about Mill's use of wood. How does one have to think about wood in order to use it like he does.
For example: untreated rough sawn boards for interiors, even bathrooms.
How would he have needed to handle the expansion and contraction issues?
Did he treat his exterior wood? Does not appear so.
And what's going on in the section through the A-Frame roof at Wild Bird, a double layer of planks with only paper in between?

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sat Feb 23, 2013 2:36 pm

Norman Jaffe did some great all wood interiors too.

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:27 pm

http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/walkth ... to-8122466

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 1:06 pm

Wonderful house, by one of the best apprentices. One sure bet is that the counter-height windows facing the view will be replaced with floor-to-ceiling glass by whoever buys the house.

(Lousy site, with all the pop-up ads and slow response. Real estate agencies should do better than that; it's not an inducement to look at the principal ad.)

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 1:34 pm

Perfectly beautiful interiors, sensitively exposed and shaded on the view side of the house. The inclusion of the stairwell in the spacial envelope of the living room is a deft move.

I like the sense of enclosure afforded by the counter-height walls in the private spaces -- but the living room wouldn't be damaged by the addition of floor-height glass between the fireplace and the terrace doors, I guess. The slightly misaligned sill heights on either side of the fireplace would be dealt with, thus.

SDR

dleach · Post by **dleach** » Thu Jun 11, 2015 8:18 am

I thought that this had been previously mentioned, perhaps in a different thread.
Mark Mills willed his total body of work to the archives at Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo. He admired their approach to architecture and their philosophy of teaching and so, thought it an appropriate place for his work to reside.

Don Leach, Architect
Cal Poly, Class of '52

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:38 am

http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/count ... itect.html

Thewes · Post by **Thewes** » Thu Feb 18, 2016 12:47 pm

A new book on Mark Mills is due out this fall.
You can preview it here: www.fantasticseashell.com

Looks really good.

Wright Chat

Mark Mills

Mark Mills

Re:Mark Mills