Polk is often criticized for “lifting” ideas and designs from other architects but I believe that this was perhaps his greatest gift: to view a particular style of architecture that caught his fancy, whether it was in Europe or the states, and adapt it to his own perspective of what Californian architecture should be. If Willis is to be criticized, it should be for his erratic work ethic and financial mismanagement. Polk, the great raconteur, was his own worst enemy bankrupting himself on numerous occasions as he tried to keep up with the San Francisco society set. William Bourn had to pay Willis’s commission for Filoli in stipends to Mrs. Polk for fear that Willis would consume it in drink. Polk would have “fits of work” as John Galen Howard would refer to them. Never formally educated, Polk was most surely suffering from what we would today label “Attention Deficit Disorder”. He could start projects with great vigor and hope, but similar to Thomas Alva Edison, he could never finish them and would often have to delegate the completion of projects to others so that he could flit off to another. To Willis, life lied in the pursuit, not the completion.

 ("Moderne Larkitecture" Wiillis Polk illustration from 1896 publication of The Lark. Here, Polk mocks one of his own buildings, a Hydro-Electric Sub-Station built for SF Water, now the SF Jewish Museum).