Cliff May Homes Brochure

Vintage "Cliff May homes" brochure from 1953. Cliff May "The Father of the California Ranch Home" designed many unique homes here in California. Cliff May homes are known for their indoor-outdoor living, floor-to-ceiling windows and glass gable ends bringing in the natural light, creating a perfect balance of bringing the outside in and the inside out. There is a Cliff May track in Pomona, Ca. I have been by there and seems there are some homeowners restoring these homes back to their original state. My choice would be "The Laguna"!

The American Look

Finally remembered what the name of this YouTube video is called, it's been haunting me for months. A friend of mine a few years ago told me about this. Thought I might share it to all who visits this blog and has never seen this before. I swear I was born in the wrong era!

Local Claremont architect, Fred McDowell - Post & Beam home

Here is just one example of a mid-century modern California ranch home designed by Claremont, California local architect, Fred McDowell. He studied architecture at USC and spent most of his career here in Claremont and surrounding cities. He designed many custom homes for well known artists that live here in Claremont as well as some of the college buildings and local churches. 

The Art of Alvin Anderson

Alvin Anderson was a 51-year resident of Claremont Ca. Born on March 17, 1925 in Santa Barbara. A combat veteran of World War II he was a tank commander in General Patton's Third Army. Graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in fine arts. Later earned a master's degree in fine arts at Claremont Graduate School. Excellent Illustrator, painter and photographer. Several pieces of his work have been exhibited in art galleries like Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Although I never met him personally I have recently met his daughter and this guy seemed to be one "Kool Kat".

arts & architecture

 "arts & architecture" magazine has to be one of the best publications of mid-century design. It was published monthly by John D. Entenza. It featured the best architects, furniture designers, and artists of the 40s, 50s & 60s. All the heavy hitters, Richard Neutra, Case Study House 21 by Pierre Koenig, R.M. Schindler. Covers designed by John Follis like the example above and Charles Eames just to name a couple. I recomend if you are into mid-century design try to get your hands on this magazine, grab yourself a cup of joe and have a nice read!!!

Julius Shulman in Infrared

Here is an interesting infrared photo by Julius Shulman taken somewhere in the Claremont Colleges. This is a scan of the original photo. I'm not to familiar with his infrared work. Most of  his work that I have seen are with black & white or color film. It's kinda cool to see it in this format.

A video for Herman Miller created by Fairly Painless Advertising. Very cool!!

Bamboo!!

A lot of people have issues with bamboo because of it's evasive personality but rightly contained it can create strong vertical lines and make quite a statement to a landscape and great for screening too. I plan on planting some bamboo this summer, wish it could start off looking like this though!