Cliff May

To the extent that modernism in architecture was about clearing the historical decks -- about dramatically and even gleefully breaking with the past -- Cliff May was never cut out to be a modernist. Not an orthodox one, anyway. A sixth-generation Californian born in 1903, May grew up spending summer vacations with an aunt on his father's side who held a lifetime lease on one of the original Mexican ranchos in northern San Diego County. His mother's family traced its lineage to Jose Antonio Estudillo, one of San Diego's most prominent founders.

WASHINGTON - A potential casualty of the "fiscal cliff" standoff is the ability of Congress to adjust an outdated tax code provision that could significantly boost what millions of middle-income households owe to the government. The provision, called the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, was enacted in 1969 to make sure that the very wealthy paid some income tax. But the threshold for the usually higher tax was not indexed for inflation, and it threatens each year to ensnare millions of people it was never intended to catch - prompting the annual congressional fix. Quiz: How much do you know about the 'fiscal cliff'?

As a student of architectural history, Bruce Emerton dreamed of living in a house designed by one of the mid-century modernists he so admires. In Pomona, he found one he could afford. Emerton's 1954 Cliff May prefab was featured this month on the 20th Annual Pomona Heritage Historic Home Tour. The light-filled ranch was the only modern home in the bunch, a 1950s vision of good affordable design in a sea of Craftsman-style houses.

WASHINGTON — With the House and Senate back on Capitol Hill for the lame-duck session, preliminary negotiations aimed at keeping the country from careening off the "fiscal cliff" have begun in earnest. The macro issues — how to reduce federal spending and how to raise federal revenue — are getting the bulk of the attention. But buried away in the discussions are bread-and-butter questions that could affect millions of homeowners and buyers: •Will the biggest housing-related tax benefits — for mortgage interest, property taxes and home-sale capital gains exclusions — be on the chopping block in the coming six weeks?

ITS low-slung frame sprawled across plains and valleys of a more open landscape. The single-story footprint didn't boast, or point skyward like the self-assured colonial or Victorian. It offered a comfortable relationship with the climate and surrounding flora, and a democratic, open floor plan; it didn't section off areas into servants quarters or announce visitors in grand foyers. It was modern without being Space Age, modest without being plain, evoking history without being mere nostalgia.

OK, California, drop those barbecue aprons to half-mast and pause a moment in memory of Cliff May (Obituaries, Oct. 20). Here was a man who made practical applications of the American spirit of the times after WWII. I lived in a Cliff May-inspired house in Long Beach and, except for a Wilson's infielder's glove I used during the summers of 1958-1962, it was the most elegantly form-fitting piece of construction I have ever occupied.

The Los Angeles Multiple Listing Service, in its typically terse style, described well the four-bedroom, four-bath house being offered through Coldwell, Banker real estate office in Brentwood: "Exciting custom Cliff May ranch on a cul-de-sac, up a private drive in Sullivan Canyon. House has a wonderful feeling of seclusion and privacy, nestled among the trees, high beamed ceilings, skylights, and great flow to patios thru sliding glass doors. Room for horses and small pool. . . ."

Southern California has had more than its share of architects and designers who have won worldwide attention--Charles and Henry Greene for their exquisite bungalows, R. M. Schindler and Richard Neutra for their modernist renditions, John Lautner for his singular visions, and, most recently, Frank Gehry for his constructivist exercises.

WASHINGTON — With the House and Senate back on Capitol Hill for the lame-duck session, preliminary negotiations aimed at keeping the country from careening off the "fiscal cliff" have begun in earnest. The macro issues — how to reduce federal spending and how to raise federal revenue — are getting the bulk of the attention. But buried away in the discussions are bread-and-butter questions that could affect millions of homeowners and buyers: •Will the biggest housing-related tax benefits — for mortgage interest, property taxes and home-sale capital gains exclusions — be on the chopping block in the coming six weeks?

Cliff May, who perfected the graceful yet informal single-story California ranch houses that today are home to thousands of Southern Californians and others around the world, died Wednesday. He was 81. His son, Mike, said his father had a brain tumor but chose to keep on working rather than enter a hospital. May died at his office studio in Brentwood.

Pacific Standard Time will explore the origins of the Los Angeles art world through museum exhibitions throughout Southern California over the next six months. Times art reviewer Sharon Mizota has set the goal of seeing all of them. This is her latest report. It's not clear what we should call Cliff May. He wasn't a trained architect. The news release for "Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance of the Ranch House" describes him as a "designer. " And the kitschy font on his business card from the 1930s touts him as a "Builder of Haciendas and Early California Rancherias.

To the extent that modernism in architecture was about clearing the historical decks -- about dramatically and even gleefully breaking with the past -- Cliff May was never cut out to be a modernist. Not an orthodox one, anyway. A sixth-generation Californian born in 1903, May grew up spending summer vacations with an aunt on his father's side who held a lifetime lease on one of the original Mexican ranchos in northern San Diego County. His mother's family traced its lineage to Jose Antonio Estudillo, one of San Diego's most prominent founders.

Ed O'Neill of "Modern Family" has bought a Brentwood home from cinematographer Robert Richardson for $3.05 million. The ranch-style house was designed by Cliff May in 1953 as his personal residence. It was an experiment in open plan living, with walls enclosing only the bathrooms and long drapes and rolling cabinets defining other rooms. During Richardson's ownership, the home was restored and refined by L.A.-based Marmol Radziner. Walls of glass open to park-like grounds, and a 288-square-foot skylight brings natural light into the house.

Screenwriter, bestselling novelist and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" director Nicholas Meyer has put his Pacific Palisades house up for sale at $7.3 million. The two-story Cliff May design, built in 1937, has been his family home for 15 years. Used for entertaining, family weddings and Meyer's work, the courtyard-style house has nearly 7,000 square feet and sits on more than three quarters of an acre — plenty of room for himself, his wife, three daughters, an office assistant and dogs.

Cliff MAY isn't a household name even in Southern California, where he designed about 1,000 homes and developed the signature suburban style that influenced an entire generation of post-World War II home builders. At midcentury in America, many thousands of May's designs were copied across the country; they epitomized the ideal of lush California and ranch-style Western living. His designs were practical, yet romantic. They celebrated nature by connecting with it. They had movement, vitality, a kind of cinematic drama that came from soaring spaces, open floor plans and glass walls.

ITS low-slung frame sprawled across plains and valleys of a more open landscape. The single-story footprint didn't boast, or point skyward like the self-assured colonial or Victorian. It offered a comfortable relationship with the climate and surrounding flora, and a democratic, open floor plan; it didn't section off areas into servants quarters or announce visitors in grand foyers. It was modern without being Space Age, modest without being plain, evoking history without being mere nostalgia.

Pacific Standard Time will explore the origins of the Los Angeles art world through museum exhibitions throughout Southern California over the next six months. Times art reviewer Sharon Mizota has set the goal of seeing all of them. This is her latest report. It's not clear what we should call Cliff May. He wasn't a trained architect. The news release for "Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance of the Ranch House" describes him as a "designer. " And the kitschy font on his business card from the 1930s touts him as a "Builder of Haciendas and Early California Rancherias.

WASHINGTON - A potential casualty of the "fiscal cliff" standoff is the ability of Congress to adjust an outdated tax code provision that could significantly boost what millions of middle-income households owe to the government. The provision, called the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, was enacted in 1969 to make sure that the very wealthy paid some income tax. But the threshold for the usually higher tax was not indexed for inflation, and it threatens each year to ensnare millions of people it was never intended to catch - prompting the annual congressional fix. Quiz: How much do you know about the 'fiscal cliff'?

As a student of architectural history, Bruce Emerton dreamed of living in a house designed by one of the mid-century modernists he so admires. In Pomona, he found one he could afford. Emerton's 1954 Cliff May prefab was featured this month on the 20th Annual Pomona Heritage Historic Home Tour. The light-filled ranch was the only modern home in the bunch, a 1950s vision of good affordable design in a sea of Craftsman-style houses.

A team of biologists is putting the final touches on a custom-built cave high in the cliffs above Fillmore before a pair of California condor chicks and two South American cousins move in on Thursday. The four condor chicks, which were raised at the Los Angeles Zoo in an effort to preserve the nearly extinct California condor species, are scheduled to be flown up to the mountaintop in a Ventura County Sheriff's Department helicopter Thursday morning.