This was the Greenes’ opportunity to design a modified
casa de rancho plan in the spirit of the Arturo Bandini house
of 1903. The rough materials, simply composed without decorative
adornment, make it one of the Greenes' finest architectural
understatements. It is a deceptively simple house; something
the Greenes had been refining since the first Bolton house.
The living room recalls the great-room of the Bandini house,
but the overall composition looks to the future, even to the
classic California ranch house typology of the mid-twentieth
century. Bedrooms are accessible directly from internal living
spaces without the need to venture outdoors in bad weather,
or to invade other bedrooms. The Camp furniture evolved from
the Stickley-like pieces published in Academy Architecture that
Charles had designed for the Mary Darling house (as well as
from the furniture designs executed for Jennie Reeve). Although
the designs show a debt to Stickley, the Camp pieces are more
refined. The Camp interior improves on the treatment of masonry
in the Bandini fireplace and chimney by bringing the hearth's
paving stones right into the living space, and by projecting
massive boulders at the base of the fireplace into the room
to create inglenook seats on each side.
