California Mediterranean

In the early 20th-century, architects designing houses for the balmy climate of Southern California were influenced by the style of the villas and palaces that dominated the architecture of Italy, France, Spain, Greece, and Morocco, and a few other North African locales. The resulting style-noted for its pleasing combination of simplicity and dignity, for its often asymetrical undecorated facades-reflected romantic, European forms, and yet distinguished itself by adding American ingenuity. Prime examples of this include Villa Narcissa, widely celebrated for its unimposing grandeur, and Casa Leon, with its stunning hillside location and ocean views. Included here are residences by noted architects such as Julia Morgan, Bertram Goodhue, Addison Mizner, George Washington Smith, Wallace Neff, and others. While some of the houses are lavishly decorated villas with lush landscaping, others are more spare, creations; what all these interpretations of the California Mediterranean style have in common is an indoor-outdoor approach to living.

Casa California

21 private Spanish style homes built between 1922 and 1991 in Southern California's eclectic and individualistic Hispanic mission and Mediterranean revival styles. Beyond their unique designs and ornamentation, the homes feature dazzling Spanish and Mexican folk art, antiques, tiles, fountains, and landscaping, all luxuriously photographed. www.melbalevickphotos.com

Red Tile Style

Virtually no other form of American architecture is as widespread or as popular as the Spanish Revival style. From bungalows and mansions to gas stations and government buildings, its influence-and its fans-can be found everywhere. Yet there has never been a single comprehensive survey of this diverse category of design. In "Red Tile Style," Arrol Gellner describes the rich history and fertile permutations of Spanish Revival architecture. Packed with more than 250 lush color photographs taken by Douglas Keister, this handsome volume ranges from the style's origins in the Spanish colonial churches of the Southwest to its emergence as a commercial form in late-nineteenth-century railroad stations to the nationwide explosion in popularity sparked by the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego. Learned, lucid, and pleasing to the eye, Red Tile Style explores the far-reaching Spanish Revival influence in today's architecture in all its variations and adaptations. For the serious student and architecture fan alike, this book is truly a landmark.

California Romantica

California Romantica features the most important, yet rarely seen, residential exemplars of the California Mission and Spanish Colonial styles, by such noted architects as George Washington Smith, Wallace Neff, Richard Requa, Lilian Rice, and Paul R. Williams, among others. From whitewashed stucco walls and cloistered patios to tile roofs and sumptuous gardens, each house shown is a rare masterpiece, splendidly appointed with authentic Monterey furniture, California tile, and Navajo rugs. Among the magnificent seaside estates, canyon villas, and courtyard bungalows shown is Diane Keaton’s former home in Beverly Hills, which she thoughtfully restored with noted designer Stephen Shadley, and for which she has been recognized as a committed preservationist. She brings her cinematic eye, a keen sense of natural drama, and a profound appreciation for the nuances of shadow and light to the elucidation of these buildings, through the selection of specially commissioned photography. Authoritative text by D. J. Waldie lucidly explicates the architecture and provides an intimate tour of a historic and distinctly Californian lifestyle.

Haciendas

Hacienda by definition is a house on a large estate or ranch. True. However, it is more than that as for many it is an idea of home, evoking thoughts of comfort, relaxing spaces, a welcoming ambience, color, and beautiful decor. All of these aspects and more are found between the pages of this beautifully photographed volume.

Hacienda Style

With a vast architectural legacy spanning four centuries, Mexican haciendas express a rugged romantic beauty and compelling sense of history. Today, the hacienda's graceful arcaded silhouette, grand-scale proportions, carved-stone ornament, rich colors and natural textures have become an ever-increasing influence for architects and designers worldwide. Hacienda Home invites you into Mexico's artful, hacienda havens resplendent with private collections of colonial and contemporary art, antiques and found relics.

Hacienda Courtyards

Karen Witynski's photographs and articles appear in national design publications and Joe P. Carr is a hacienda design consultant and furniture designer.

The New Hacienda

140 Color Photographs & IllustrationsRights: W, DesignHidden in idyllic isolation, the haciendas of Old Mexico strike powerful chords with their rich mix of myth, history, and impressive architecture. With the surge in popularity of hacienda restoration throughout Mexico, the time is ripe for the release of The New Hacienda in paperback. Travel behind the scenes with authors Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr as they open the doors to Mexico's remote country estates and reveal innovative interiors, artifacts, and antiques that echo the hacienda's original architectural splendor. The New Hacienda looks at the ways in which designers and architects have integrated the visual culture of the hacienda and blended Mexican elements in new homes on both sides of the border. From ancient stone walls and arcaded portals to cobbled courtyards and grand salons, hacienda style comes alive with a spirited mix of once-forgotten objects and contemporary furniture.

Spanish Houses

Vivid colors, rustic simplicity, and the textural contrasts of wood, terra-cotta, and stucco are the hallmarks of the casual elegance of classic Spanish houses. The Spanish approach to residential style is a mixture of luxury and rusticity-wooden beams complement whitewashed ceilings, and worn leather furniture is set off against Moorish arches and wrought ironwork. The vibrant photos and detailed, practical text explore all the elements that become integral parts of a living space, from windows to doors, floors to ceilings, furniture to accessories and even gardens. From romantic homes in Spain's woodsy sierras to grand manors in the southern plains, many of these estates boast unusual features like hidden courtyard gardens or secluded balconies.

Spanish Revival Architecture

More than 500 period photographs explore the Spanish Revival movement (1915-1940) in architecture. Exquisite details are explored for both interiors and exteriors, in many private residences, commercial spaces, churches, schools, libraries, theaters, and private clubs. Work by celebrated architects who helped pioneer the Spanish Revival movement is featured, including George Washington Smith, Wallace Neff, Gordon Kauffman, Morgan, Walls and Clements, and many others.

Architectural Details / Spain and the Mediterranean

178 b&w photos. In the early 20C, architect Richard S. Requa traveled Spain and the Mediterranean, documenting authentic architecture. Together with The Monolith Portland Cement Co., Requa published his portfolio of images in 1926, helping to fuel the Spanish Revival movement throughout the Pacific Coast and Florida. Besides providing a wealth of inspiration regarding overall architecture, this reissue also provides intimate detailing of balconies, doors, hardware, and architectural motifs, and serves as a resource for historians and restoration experts.

Old World Inspirations for American Architecture

This is the classic resource for authentic Mediterranean and Spanish architecture, compiled in 1929 by the pioneer architect of its revival style. Its 144 plates display many country and city dwellings, interiors as well as exteriors, and architectural, garden, and ironwork details. Sections focus on roofs, street scenes, cornices and chimneys. There are Old World doorways, window grilles, balconies, and cornices. Its patios, fountains, and gates can provide inspiration for today's builders seeking to create authentic landscape design. Many of the photographic views are identified with the town name and specific features they clearly display.

Wallace Neff and the Grand Houses of the Golden State

This significant architect was raised as Southern California aristocracy, as an heir to one of the founders of Rand McNally & Company, and grew up to influence the course of architectural history in California. Illustrated with archival photographs that document Neff's family life and professional accomplishments, journalist Diane Kanner's narrative offers a behind-the-scenes look at the development of residential architecture in Southern California.--

George Washington Smith / Architect of the Spanish Colonial Revival

George Washington Smith is a full-length monograph that surveys the work of the father of the Spanish-Colonial Revival style. Beginning with the building of his own house is Santa Barbara, Smith created his signature designs based on centuries-old Andalusian structures he saw in his travels through Europe. Enclosed courtyards, shady balconies, cool tiles, and bubbling fountains make up the Spanish-Colonial Revival style, and it was perfect for the warm Mediterranean-like Southern California climate.

Lilian J. Rice / Architect of Rancho Santa Fe, California

Release by Schiffer Publishing is set for April 12 In 1922, a commission to design and supervise the construction of a planned development in north San Diego County created a perfect opportunity for Requa and Jackson to build a community based on the California-Spanish style. The distance from San Diego, however, presented difficulties for two busy architects who could ill afford the time to make the many necessary thirty-three mile trips during the project's construction phase. Also, the prospect of modest financial gains proved a drawback for established professionals who wished to avail themselves of more lucrative offers in town. The decision to turn the project over to their associate, Lilian Rice, not only provided a satisfactory solution to the problem, but offered a distinct challenge for a young woman whose full-time involvement with the firm had occurred only a year earlier.

Bertram Goodhue: His Life and Residential Architecture

A look at an American architect of exceptional vision whose work has been neither fully researched nor appreciated. This study examines the residential designs of Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (1869-1924) within the context of his better-known ecclesiastical and secular projects. It provides new insights into the evolution of Goodhue's architecture during the thirty-three-year period of his remarkable career and takes a closer look at the man behind the drawing board. 32 pages of color; 250 black-and-white illustrations. Although Goodhue's residential designs made up a relatively small portion of his total work, the results are rich in architectural expression. His residential clients provided him with the opportunity to experiment with various interpretations of historical styles, to realize some of his romantic dreams, to put into practice the goals of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and to advance his search for stylistic freedom. The book concludes with a discussion of Goodhue's place in the history of architecture, with particular attention to how his role in the modern movement has been evaluated with renewed interest and fresh eyes in the postmodern period. Excerpt A silver-trimmed, dove-grey sombrero casts a shadow over the handsome features of the young man as he sat sketching the cityscape spread across the distant horizon. With an occasional puff on a fragrant cigar and with a pencil balanced between his delicate fingers, he recorded quickly the forms and heights, light and shade, of the domes and towers of Guadalupe, Mexico. The year was 1891.