Editor's Note By Crosby Doe A Los Angeles Times reporter once asked me to name my favorite L.A. house. I chose the Walter L. Dodge House by architect Irving J. Gill—and I am still fascinated by the elegance of the design, the power in its simplicity, the use of materials and finishes, and what, to me, was the ideal plan for living in a California garden. However, I never got to experience the...