Dome

Front (east) elevation, showing the tower; Of Gill's ten churches, the 1909-1910 Christian Science Church at Second and Laurel is by far the most famous. The church incorporated many of Gill's most ingenious technical inventions as well as his penchant for light and his desire to bring nature inside. Instead of lining up the pews on a vertical axis, Gill decided to make an auditorium with a long horizontal axis, giving the great space a more expansive feeling. By 1910 Gill had developed his own style, which remained constant until the end of his career. His approach was in part reductivist. Decorative details such as eaves and mouldings are pared away, leaving uninterrupted surfaces inside and out. Yet his method relied more on creating a lucid, geometric order, in both form and space, predicated on what he had come to regard as the immutable basics in design: the straight line, circle, cube and arch. His imagery owes a major debt to Spanish architecture in California as well as the Arts and Crafts Movement. Source: San Diego History Center; https://www.sandiegohistory.org/ (accessed 7/7/2010)