Until June 17th at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum in Santa Barbara you can see how Cliff May revolutionized the traditional Ranch making it one of the icons of the mid century modern architecture.

“The exhibition and accompanying catalogue examine the modernization of the ranch tradition and its transition from regional designs in adobe, brick, tile, and stucco to the modest wood and glass tract house of the forties, to the near-minimal system-built ranches May designed and sold in the late 1950s and, finally, to his luxury ranch houses.”

“(…) Through drawings, models, sales pamphlets, photographs, site maps, publications, film and television clips and stills,  and popular magazines, the exhibition will address the opening up of the plan, the emphasis on patio and glass corridor to suggest additional space, and the integration of house and garden.

It will explore wartime industry, post-war in-migration, and the federal subsistence and military building programs that set many of the material terms and language for postwar tracts and for May’s ubiquitous Californian solution that helped create an important regional identity.” (via MuseumUCSB)

I hope you can go and visit this interesting exhibition, and if so…

LET ME KNOW HOW IT WAS AND YOUR OPINION IN THE COMMENTS!

Check the Mid Century Design page to explore the most interesting exhibitions about mid-century modern architecture and design.

Thanks for reading and ciao.