Cliff May: Good Housekeeping house

In 1947, Good Housekeeping magazine published May’s design of a small ranch house for a 60 x 120- foot lot, with the tag line, “Five rooms indoors—five outdoors.” The article boasts that the house is only 42 feet wide and “[t]here is no front or back—the house is livable on all sides.” Illustrated with a photograph of a model and a plan, the writer describes the modernity of the house: “Our ranch spreads out for light, air and view...Its design shows early Spanish influence, but in plan and flexibility it is thoroughly modern.” A sketch plan, with landscaping by Douglas Baylis, was offered to readers for 10 cents. The compact L-shaped plan would form the basis of May’s work for precut houses and housing developments in the mid-1950s.

Cliff May, architect

Cliff May papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.

1946-1947

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