The romance and mythology of Spain found a powerful expression in the residential architecture of Southern California in the early 20th century. The style captured the imagination of mostly wealthy Americans, many who traveled widely and were enthralled with the clean simplicity of the design, the light and the natural materials of the Mediterranean world. These romantics christened their residences with names like Villa Primavera, El Castillo del Lago or El Sue’o del Halcon del Mar (The Seahawk’s Dream) that evoked the sensual aesthetic of Spain and Mexico. Inspired by the climate, landscape and endless possibilities in California, architects found a new freedom in mixing and matching the distinctive features of Mediterranean architecture’arcades, stucco walls, decorative tile, wrought iron and exuberant gardens’into a new regional style. Southern California still abounds in examples of Spanish Colonial-Revival houses dotting our canyons, overlooking the Pacific and sheltering the emerging middle class of the 1920s onward. An extensive bibliography exists on the style and is ever growing. The newest entry in the genre is ‘The California Casa,’ written by Douglas Woods with photographs by Melba Levick. This is the pair’s second collaboration, having previously published ‘Classic Homes of Los Angeles.’ Levick has illustrated books on architecture, cooking, gardens and travel. Woods has written various books specializing in architecture and the arts, including co-authoring, with Sam Lubell, ‘Julius Shulman Los Angeles, The Birth of a Modern Metropolis.’ Levick and Woods will be the guest speakers at an afternoon event from 3 to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 19 at the Hacienda Mojica in Santa Monica Canyon, built for the Mexican opera star Jose Mojica and included in the book. Their conversation will be followed by a wine tasting hosted by Magnavino Cellars vintners, who will be offering sips from their Syrah and Zinfandel stocks. ’The California Casa’ presents yet another book published by Rizzoli that deepens our knowledge of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. While ‘California Romantica’ (2007) focused on the architects who helped the rich realize their dreams, ‘The California Casa’ is ‘the definitive book on the style,’ Levick says. The authors emphasize the populist appeal of what became a regional style and include modest houses as well as the planned community of Rancho Santa Fe. The Spanish missionaries in the 18th century introduced the now familiar architectural elements drawn from adobe building, including low-pitch gable roofs of red-clay barrel tile, arched entry gates leading to a courtyard and hand-troweled stucco. By the early 1920s, architects were branching out from this rather unadorned Mission style, adding decorative elements such as wrought-iron window grilles, fountains and colorful tile. Spanish Colonial Revival, Brian Tichenor argues in his introduction to ‘The California Casa,’ was not a revival but rather a new regional style, influenced not only by European details but also by our Mediterranean climate and even ‘the mad set designs of the great motion picture studios of Hollywood.’ Several major architects helped to define the vocabulary of the look, notably George Washington Smith of Santa Barbara, Wallace Neff of Pasadena, Paul Williams of Los Angeles and John Byers, who designed many Spanish-style homes on the Westside. But, it was the New Yorker Bertram Goodhue who crystallized the concepts for Spanish Revival designs not only for houses and gardens, but also for San Diego’s Panama-California Exposition of 1915. The fair was a campus of Mediterranean-style buildings that historian Kevin Starr says ‘comprised something like a recapitulated history of Spanish colonial in North America, from Renaissance Europe sources, to Spanish colonial, to Mexican Baroque, to the vernacular styles adopted by the Franciscan missions up the California coast.’ An architect of particular interest highlighted in the book is Lillian Rice, who was not only one of the first generation of women architects but also the visionary behind Rancho Santa Fe, a prototype for the Spanish-influenced planned communities of San Clemente and Palos Verdes Estates. ‘She defined the look of the community with its little Spanish village center and perfect Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, originally designed as accommodations for prospective property buyers and is now a boutique hotel,’ Woods writes. An integral component of the Spanish Colonial style is garden spaces. The architects maximized livability in their designs by creating patios, courtyards and quiet private places hidden behind adobe walls and cooled by decorative fountains, pergolas and mature trees. ”Hacienda Mojica was built in 1929 in Santa Monica Canyon, which was once part of the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica. It is nestled behind a rustic brick wall and shaded by a forest of sycamores, giant birds of paradise and palms. Although credited to Merrill Baird, the house is believed to be the work of John Byers, based on the many hallmarks of his style, notably the handcrafted elements, such as adobe bricks, decorative tiles and woodwork. Baird was a draftsman in Byers’ office and may have inherited the project, according to Woods. Jose Mojica was a Mexican tenor who enjoyed fame in both opera and in movies. He moved to California in 1934 to pursue his career in Hollywood until the death of his mother in 1940 affected him profoundly, ultimately contributing to his turn towards his faith. He entered the seminary in Peru and dedicated the rest of his life to serving God, until his death in 1974. The private chapel in the hacienda speaks to Mojica’s Catholic devotion. Any discussion of Spanish Colonial architecture must include the rich and varied tile development. Hundreds of factories abounded in Southern California from the 1910s through the1930s, producing the tiles both for construction and decoration. One of the largest and most successful of the California tile companies was Malibu Potteries founded by Rhoda Rindge, whose husband Frederick had always wanted Malibu to reflect the Mediterranean architecture and flavor absorbed from his European travels. The company operated from 1926 through 1932 and relied upon the region’s natural red clay. Catalina Clay Products was founded in 1927 by William Wrigley, who found it more economical to manufacture building materials for constructing the roofs and bricks on the island, and later decorative tiles in developing Avalon. It’s astonishing that given the impact the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture has had on the Southern California lifestyle, that the period of the greatest imagination in design and building was a brief 15 to 20 years, the Depression ending it all. D.J. Waldie reflects on the legacy in ‘California Romantica,’ writing: ‘The Spanish Colonial Revival gave California a distinctive architectural vocabulary, a habit of indoor and outdoor living, a playfulness that signaled something new about domesticity, a new tradition in landscape design and a body of well-wrought town plans, public places and houses.’ For reservations to the La Se’ora conversation and wine tasting ($45-$50), visit lasenora.org. and choose Events registration/membership.
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