Stained glass windows, southern elevation (center)

Edgar Miller, et al
1929

The stained glass windows at the south end of the room were all completed in 1929, part of the initial stage of stained glass installation for the Garden of Paradise Room. Designed as the main social hall for the house, guests would have to traverse all three floors up to the top, where they would emerge into the cathedral-like chamber, complete with vaulted ceilings and breath-taking stained glass. A signature panel high up and impossible to view without the aid of a telephoto lens reveals that Miller was assisted in the fabrication of these windows, by his sister Hester Miller, his apprentice Jesús Torres, and Sol Kogen.

These central windows borrow from the aesthetic motifs and geometric structures in European Gothic stained glass design, though Miller makes subtle but noticeable stylization changes reflecting upon the Modernist and Expressionist ideas of his era. The windows’ central theme is that of the high virtue of nature and the importance of humanity's role within it. It is possible that the depicted flora and fauna have some unknown symbolism, but it seems certain that the centrality of the human figures indicates an embedded message about the importance of the human family in nature. While the style references Medieval religious iconography of the past, the composition looks forward into the future hoping to find a balance between naturalism and the transcendental.