Cliff May

Cliff May (1909–1989) was an architect practicing in California best known and remembered for developing the suburban Post-war "dream home" (California Ranch House), and the Mid-century Modern.

For the political journalist, see Clifford May.

The Ranch-style house

May grew up in San Diego, California. He built Monterey-style furniture as a young man. As a residential/building designer, May designed projects throughout Southern California, including the regions around San Diego, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara, California. He is credited with creating the California Ranch-style house in 1932. He never had the need to formally register as a licensed architect.

During his career May designed numerous commercial buildings, over a thousand custom residences, and from model house prototypes more than eighteen thousand tract houses had his imprint. May synthesized Spanish Colonial Revival architecture with abstracted California adobe ranchos and Modern architecture. Robert Mondavi chose May to design his winery in which he incorporated features found in construction of California Missions.[1]

During the 1950s May, along with colleague Chris Choate designed prefabricated tract ranch homes which they sold to builders across the US. Many of these prefab tracts like Rancho Estates in Long Beach were popular and resulted in many homes in the tracts being built and sold. Some, particularity those outside of California, were unprofitable and only resulted in the model homes being built. The partnership between May and Choate ended in 1956 with May's departure.

May died in 1989 at the age of 80, at his estate "Mandalay" in Sullivan Canyon in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

The HGTV television show Flip or Flop featured remodels of two Cliff May homes.

Projects

Selected works include:[2][3][4]

See also

References
  1. Hubler, Shawn (April 24, 2012). "California wine came of age under him Vintner elevated state's wines". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  2. "Cliff May's First Houses 1932-1936" (PDF).
  3. "7 Classic Cliff May Houses".
  4. "Ocotillo Residence".
  5. San Francisco Examiner, April 26, 1953, p49; The California ranch house oral history transcript - Cliff May interview
  6. Strawther, Larry, "A Brief History of Los Alamitos and Rossmoor". p131-135. Pages briefly cover the May-Choate-Ross Cortese partnership on the Lakewood Rancho homes (now called Rancho Estates) in Long Beach and the ensuing Frematic Homes in Anaheim.

Further reading


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