Back to the

An exhIbIt At UCSb CelebrAteS An ArChIteCtUrAl Style thAt doeSn’t get the reSpeCt It deServeS.

By RoBin Micheli

It’s time to

A museum show About rAnch its roots in ’s architectural houses? Really? You mean those give the history through its significance in ticky-tacky tract houses lining street modern design. An accompanying after street in neighborhoods that all ranch house exhibit by Catherine Opie, who but define suburban sprawl? Aren’t photographed ranch houses as they ranch houses everywhere? some love. are lived in today, emphasizes their Well, yes—and no. contemporary relevance. The ubiquity of ranch houses in In other words, it’s time to give California and across the country the ranch house some love. It’s true makes it easy to dismiss them as that in the later years of the ranch ho-hum fixtures of the landscape. house trend, which lasted until But a new exhibit at the University of the early 1970s, the style became California Santa Barbara’s (USCB) degraded as it was adopted by legions Art, Design & Architecture Museum of builders scrambling to bring dispels any notions of monotony. low-cost housing to the market. Carefree California: Cliff May and The cookie-cutter structures that the Romance of the Ranch House not resulted haven’t helped the ranch only highlights the beauty of ranch house rep—especially in comparison house style, which became popular to, say, the much-admired Spanish after World War II, but also traces Colonial Revival style that pervades

62 april 2012 805living.COM OPPOSiTE: The ranch house was popularized and optimized by designer Cliff May. Early in his career, May’s slogan was “Restore the Romance and Charm of Early California Design to Modern living.” He is pictured (circa 1960) at his own residence, “Mandalay” in . RigHT: A rendering from Cliff May Homes, 1956. BElOW: The Old Ranch House in Pacific Palisades epitomizes the style with its long, low, horizontal lines, vaulted ceiling with exposed beams, and large panels of floor-to-ceiling glass.

Portrait: Joe Munroe; rendering: arthur Lonergan, Courtesy CLiff May PaPers, arChiteCture and design CoLLeCtion, art, design & arChiteCture MuseuM, uCsB; this Page: CoPyright Catherine oPie, Courtesy regen ProJeCts, Los angeLes.

805living.COM april 2012 63 OPPOSiTE: in Solvang, a very successful convergence of Cliff May design and the ranch house aesthetic: an open floor plan with loads of light (note the sunlight shining in between the beams at the apex), exposure to outdoor spaces, and the use of natural materials (the ceiling is made of grape stakes). THiS PAgE: A rendering of the house in the planning phases. To see more of this house, and to learn about its renovation by the current homeowner, architect Barry Berkus, visit 805living.com.

Santa Barbara with its red-tiled roofs, or to the sleek, modern steel- and-glass structures for which Palm Springs is known. True ranch house aesthetic, in fact, draws from historical traditions. It grew from Spanish Colonial architecture, and it has made a major impact

on midcentury design. It even influenced some iconic modern designers, n; want to see more? m. such as Albert Frey, who are revered in Palm Springs and elsewhere as CO ll ECTIO h.

Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance CO modern masters. No one embraced ranch house virtues more than Cliff TSC gn May, often called the “Father of the California Ranch House.” of the Ranch House and Catherine Opie Photos ar mB dESI JI

UCSB’s exhibit, which includes drawings, photographs, site of Cliff May Houses are part of Pacific Standard h, E and maps, publications, and film and TV clips, is billed as the first major TSC

Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980, a collaboration ur retrospective of the man. May was a designer and builder, not a

of more than 60 cultural ITECT JIm Bar licensed architect, and he didn’t do much drawing himself, directing E:

institutions. The ranch house and photo ag P

his delineators in the creation of his plans. He didn’t invent the IS exhibits can be seen Wednesdays through rS, arCh Th ranch house, either, which first began appearing in 1920s California PE Pa Sundays, 12 to 5 p.m., through June 17 at CSB; ay as an adaptation of Mexican-style haciendas and rancheros. More u m um,

UCSB’s Museum of Art, Design & Architecture. ff I

than anyone else, however, May popularized the ranch house and SE

Admission is free; www.uam.ucsb.edu. y Cl

established its importance in 20th-century architecture, driving its E mu TES ur

evolution along the way. ur CO ITECT

“The ranch house has its roots in the architecture that Spanish colo- n,

nials brought to Mexico,” says Sian Winship, president of the Southern ISO & arCh Jam California chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. “First gn arT, dESI OPPOSITE:

64 april 2012 805living.COM they’d build one room and then another—each with a door leading to the courtyard—and then another, and when they ran out of space they’d turn and make a U-shape with a patio. That’s what led to the California living tradition we are able to enjoy now.” May was all about casual California living. A sixth-generation Californian (and a jazz musician, horseman, and daredevil pilot), he drew inspiration from his aunt’s ranch near , where he spent summers as a child. His early business card, which can be seen at the exhibit, reads: “Builders of Haciendas and Early California Rancheros.” He built his first home in 1931 when he was in his early twenties. Within seven years, 35 Cliff May houses had gone up in the San Diego area. He then purchased land near the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades and began building custom homes with stables. (One of his 20 Riviera Ranch homes was The Old Ranch House, which appears in the Catherine Opie exhibit and is now occupied by Modern Family May actor Ed O’Neill.) In the 1950s he began manufacturing prefabricated panels for affordable tract housing, creating a community of 950 homes in Long Beach called Lakewood Rancho Estates, one of which popularized was also shot for the exhibit. All along, May had been designing luxury custom ranches, and by the ranch the 1960s he focused solely on that market (he built several homes in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties). Some he built for his own family house and and used to promote his business. A canny marketer, he posed his established its importance in 20th-century architecture. n; m. CO ll ECTIO h. TSC gn CO ar mB h, JI E and dESI TSC ur ITECT E: JIm Bar ag rS, arCh PE CSB; T hISCSB; P ay Pa um, u SE y ClIff m E mu TES ur ur ITECT n, CO ISO gn & arCh OPPOSITE: Jam arT, dESI

805living.COM april 2012 65 daughters relaxing on the patio for publicity shots and invited clients for overnight stays so they could get a feel for his brand of California living. “Cliff May was about three things,” says Elyse Gonzales, who orga- nized the Catherine Opie exhibit. “He was all about indoor-outdoor “If it lives living; he wanted chic, elegant living to be accessible to all; and he felt that comfort was of the utmost importance.” like a ranch Though May himself was reluctant to provide a definition of what he designed (“If it lives like a ranch house, it is a ranch house,” he’d house, it is a said), certain features tended to distinguish his style: long, low, horizontal lines; floor-to-ceiling glass for windows and sliders that opened onto courtyards, commingling outdoor and indoor spaces; ranch house.” open floor plans of asymmetrical rooms; and exposed beams and

66 april 2012 805living.COM OPPOSITE: A peek inside large overhanging eaves. He used traditional materials like clay tiles one of the 950 homes that formed the Lakewood Rancho and wood, and he insisted on rough-sawn split rails instead of planed Estates housing tract in wood for board-and-batten exteriors. Long Beach; the developer “After the war, everyone was trying to figure out how to live in used prefabricated Cliff May designs to make ranch an optimistic world. They were asking, ‘What did it mean to be house style more affordable modern?’ ” says Winship. One answer was the rigorous, avant-garde and accessible in the 1950s. ABOVE: Classic ranch houses aesthetic seen in houses by designers Richard Neutra and Rudolph were often built around a Schindler that emphasized materials like steel and concrete. “But central open space, like the courtyard pool illustrated in if you weren’t ready to go all steel-and-glass box straight from your this forward-thinking Cliff May colonial home,” Winship adds, “you could get into this thing, also very plan from 1946. BELOW: The modern and spacious, called a ranch house. It too, had expanses of Robert Powers residence in Camarillo, built in 1962–63. glass and indoor-outdoor areas, but it facilitated California living with a traditional feel. Cliff May created some of the best of these.” It turned out that Cliff May ranches also had legs, evidenced by Catherine Opie’s contemporary photographs of his houses and the people living in them. After years of high-style modernism’s popularity, says Winship, “I think people want to learn about something different that represents . LL eCtion, traditional values and that optimism of postwar living. It’s something an Les; M we can sorely use these days.”  nge fried Cts, Los a M: greg Cture and design Co roje otto hite M, uCsB; this page, B pie, Courtesy regen Courtesy pie, p ture Museu ture C hite rt, design & arC endering: j. roth, Courtesy CLiff papers, May arC opposite: Copyright Catherine o Catherine Copyright opposite: r a