Two-story Cliff May-designed homes are like unicorns, and usually not in the good way. They’re rare enough; Cliff May expert, resident and Realtor Doug Kramer estimates there are about a dozen scattered around the 700-home Cliff May Ranchos neighborhood in East Long Beach in a tract east of Studebaker Road and north of Spring Street. But as a rule, they’re fairly unappealing, bordering a time on being an eyesore.
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The problem with adding a second story to May’s original sleek and invariably one-story designs is they’ve usually been done on the cheap and quick, with a contractor working without an architect and just slapping a generic rectangular top to the home, which, while, yes, it provides additional space to the original, it generally results in a dog’s breakfast in terms of appearance.
Pasadena | $1.489 Million
A 1908 Craftsman house with five bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, on a 0.2-acre lot
Pasadena was once a popular winter destination for those from colder parts of the country, and is considered by many to have one of the world’s best collections of Craftsman-style homes. This one has retained much of its original exterior character, including the gabled roofline and covered front porch. It is in the Garfield Heights neighborhood, a few blocks from the designated landmark district of the same name. Old Pasadena, with its stores and restaurants, is about two miles away; downtown Los Angeles is a 25-minute drive.
While working in Richard Neutra’s office, architect Jean Gloria Killion designed and built herself a stunning home and studio in the hills of Pasadena.
A midcentury post-and-beam home in Pasadena, California, is back on the market following efforts by local developers to revive both the home and the architect’s legacy. Located in the Poppy Peak Historic District, the hillside residence was designed by Jean Gloria Killion, who worked as a project architect in Richard Neutra’s office from 1952 to 1954. While it’s unknown how Killion contributed to Neutra’s famous designs from this period, her own residence is among the few structures officially attributed to her name.