Cliff May began designing and building homes in his early-20s, but wasn’t licensed as an architect until the last year of his life (1908-1989).
He spent his boyhood summers at his Aunt Jane McGee’s home at the Los Flores adobe on Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, now a part of Camp Pendleton. He also roamed the Santa Margarita ranch house and the Casa de Estudillo, two other important adobe haciendas.
May expressed a visceral understanding of what made these earthy, old haciendas with thick walls and low roofs so comfortable, when he reminisced about his youth: “The ranch house had eveything a California house should be. It had cross ventilation, the floor was level with the ground,and with its courtyard and the exterior corridor, it was about sunshine and informal outdoor living.”
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More Mac – Tusk!
I’m pleasantly surprised by the old rancho style. Most of the Cliff May houses that I’ve seen are the 50s ranchos near el dorado park in long beach, a several acre tract of perhaps 300 built in maybe 53-55. Now it is more clear where the inspiration for the open courtyards with lots of glass in these 50s houses derive from!
thanks Jim
Beautiful. Thanks for letting us tag along!
Wonderful houses
Gorgeous! Incredibly talented wood craftsmen on the finish. Mahalo for the tour, Jim. It was like I was standing next to you…
incredible, so classy and unique.
if you like this spanish style and are thinking of building, check out the current reno on This Old House. it’s in Silver Lake/LA. this past weekend’s episode featured the construction of the foundation and how it complied with building codes (earthquake and hillside ordinance).
What’s most important about May is that he understood what it means to live and build in California. Everything from the materials to the relationship to the outdoors.
If you take away the Spanish tile his aesthetic is early modern which suits Southern California very well.
May, Elwood, Neutra, Schindler and Wurster are other great architects who also understood this and should be emulated more.
One was for sale last year in my LA town. Asking price about $4 Mill. Around 4k sq.ft but only 3 bedrooms and 1ac lot. Did not sell. The whole indoor-outdoor feel was very nice. What I didn’t like is that the lot had too many trees right over the house, the house felt damp/musty and there were too many cobwebs … shudder!!
We would never buy one of these houses because we would want to rip out most of the tile and other elements! We leave these homes to those who can appreciate and enjoy them.
Your video of Old Town just reminded me … we are going to SD next week during school break. What are must sees for a family visiting SD? We are driving down and the kids are 9 & 12.
Did anyone notice that central beam in the great room at 10:11ff? I bet at the time the house was built that was a standard size; today you would have to cut down your own tree to get that. (Actually, today they are all laminates.) They really don’t make em like they used to.
Thank you Jim for introducing to us, located overseas, this remarkable California architect and video-sharing some of its creations! The tour is going to be on my must do list if I will ever have to opportunity to visit San Diego.
Valentin,
Bucharest, Romania
Jim,
I would like to join the thank you chorus for this post.
The square footages are small by today’s standards, but the homes are very livable and with great style. Clif May was a very good architect.
Thanks
Thanks, Jim. These houses are all about a casual elegance most homebuyers cannot fathom.