Books

REVIEWED BY KATHY BRYANT

Spanish Colonial Style: Santa Barbara and the Architecture of James Osborne Craig and Mary McLaughlin Craig

Text by Pamela Skewes-Cox and Robert Sweeney

Introduction by C. Ford Peatross

Photography by Matt Walla

Most everyone who has visited Santa Barbara has been struck by the classic Spanish-style houses seen there. Spanish Colonial Style celebrates this tradition in architecture whose hallmarks include whitewashed stucco and plaster walls, wood-beamed ceilings, dramatic fireplaces, and, above all, mystery and romance.

“Today in America, the materials and architectural forms and details of the Spanish Colonial Revival are ubiquitous, an unquestioned aspect of everyday life,” writes C. Ford Peatross in the Introduction. “This highly influential and distinctive vocabulary was arrived at in the space of a few years in the late 1910s and early 1920s.” James Osborne Craig has not been given as much credit for popularizing this form as he should have in part due to his untimely death in 1922 at the age of 33.

Architects James Osborne Craig and Mary McLaughlin Craig were early proponents of the style and influential masters of the form. This book gives a history of both their architectural careers as well as the style that can be seen throughout Southern California. Featured are historical photographs, plans and drawings which give an insider’s view of how the style progressed starting in the early part of the twentieth century.

The Craigs played pivotal roles in the development of the Spanish Colonial Revival and other styles of architecture in Santa Barbara. Besides honoring the Craigs this book also shows how Santa Barbara, a small city, took on international importance in the first half of the twentieth century CH

Spanish Colonial Style: Santa Barbara and the Architecture of James Osborne Craig and Mary McLaughlin Craig

Text by Pamela Skewes-Cox and Robert Sweeney

Introduction by C. Ford Peatross

Photography by Matt Walla

272 pages

Hardcover 9 x 12 inches

$60 US

ISBN: 978-0-8478-4612-2

Rizzoli New York