Montecito Archives

South Bay Digs • August 11, 2023

DIGS August 9, 2023

ON THE COVER | 1599 E Valley Road Named Constantia—A Classic of Cape Dutch Design—Makes for an Enduring Memory in Santa Barbara’s Montecito.

Constantia’s Enduring Beauty: 1599 E Valley Road in Montecito

Virginia Fay August 9, 2023

For nearly a century, a bright white Ambrose Cramer-designed home has presided over the glowing green grounds of Constantia, an estate nestled between the mountains and the sea in Montecito, California.

Light Touch: Studio William Hefner’s Palisades Ranch

Jenn Thornton September 7, 2022

With the clean lines of a modern aesthetic balanced with the warmth of traditional style, Palisades Ranch is a characteristically sunny Southern California house designed by a quintessential California architect, William Hefner.

William Hefner Restored | Romero Canyon California Dreaming

Abigail Stone January 12, 2022

Located on Romero Canyon Road, this William Hefner property has two buildings, a 900-foot bungalow and a separate stable were relics of the 1930s, slender and careworn, and sits on an acre of land that had long been neglected.

MDR Beachfront Living & Bringing the Mediterranean to Montecito

Karine Monié October 28, 2021

3111 Ocean Front more than 52 feet of boardwalk ocean view, and 1039 Cima Linda situated on more than 2.5 meticulously landscaped acres.

Marion Sims Wyeth: The Pride of Palm Beach

Jenn Thornton September 15, 2021

Many of these projects are highlighted in the forthcoming book From Palm Beach to Shangri La: The Architecture of Marion Sims Wyeth (Rizzoli) by Jane S. Day. The exuberant tome, a paean to Marion Sims Wyeth and historic preservation, gives overdue recognition to an architect who is too little considered in contemporary times.

A Montecito 10-acre Estate with Historical Pedigree

Karine Monié August 4, 2021

Very few properties have such a rich history as “Far Afield,” an approximately 20,000-square-foot residence with seven bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, offering views of the ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains.

Epic Proportions at Former Rob Lowe and Sheryl Berkoff Estate in Montecito

Wendy Bowman June 10, 2020

When two of L.A.’s top real estate agents with a combined 57 years in the business tout a certain listing as one of the most breathtaking they’ve ever encountered, people tend to sit up and take notice.

Uncontrived, lush with exotica and featuring ponds and porticos, stonework and sculpture, “garden” actually seems too provincial a term for the hybrids of function and fantasy that Grace creates. Hers is a fine eye and a remarkable hand. “As a licensed landscape contractor, I build what I design,” she says. “That’s when my work took a big leap forward. There is no separation between design, installation, and maintenance, it’s all one and happens on a continuum. Unless it’s integrated, it doesn’t work—period.” This is how she thinks too, both pragmatically and painterly. Much like an artist, she uses “broad and fine brushstrokes” to transform a two-dimensional canvas into a three-dimensional work of art. And in a systematic fashion; first is attending to infrastructure beneath the ground, then to its surface with the layering of elements. Rocks, for instance, are not so much placed as they are selected and then worked such that their shadows will cause additional depth or bring color forward. From there the garden grows. One also sees this artistry in Grace’s exquisite new tome Private Gardens of Santa Barbara: The Art of Outdoor Living (Gibbs Smith), a rapturous showcase of her elegant outdoor Edens, from rustic to coastal to modern. Each of the book’s made-to-age milieus represents a temple of residential garden know-how and is illustrative of nonderivative design that reflects the character of the native landscape. “The Art of Outdoor Living” idea certainly accounts for the substantial exterior living rooms and heated floors of our era. “About 10 percent of outdoor living comes down to ‘my fort is cooler than your fort,’” Grace refreshingly confesses. But at the root, “it is a way to describe a lifestyle connected to nature.” For Grace, who went from toiling in the family garden to forsaking a career in medicine after a 13-week stint as a park ranger proved she’d long lost her heart to the natural world, this is the point. “Step outside and you hear birdsong, you smell water evaporating. It’s a rich and simple experience, but relaxed and comfortable. We take a deep breath and feel better. It’s so automatic we don’t even think of it, but it is a very profound thing. It’s experiential, there is intentionality to it.” Landscape as soul, nature as a relief—what a thing of beauty. gracedesignassociates.com Photos: Grace Design Associates And Holly Lepere Johnson (Home).

A Lush New Tome: Margie Grace Cultivates Exquisite Gardens

Jenn Thornton May 14, 2020

Landscape designer and author of a lush new tome, Margie Grace cultivates exquisite gardens with singular flora and flourish.

Beachfront Homes For Sale: Padaro Beach Style

Ultimate Beachfront Home In Carpinteria

Wendy Bowman August 22, 2019

This Don Nulty-designed property nestled beside Padaro Beach in the charming coastal community of Carpinteria offers resort-style living at its finest.

A World All Its Own on Santa Barbara’s Gaviota Coast

Wendy Bowman May 2, 2019

This unrivaled ranch now available on Santa Barbara’s Gaviota Coast for $110 million has quite a history. A rare offering, El Rancho Tajiguas is situated on land once inhabited by the Chumash Indians, later claimed by Spain’s King Carlos III, and now linked to Mansour Ojjeh of TAG and its McLaren Formula 1 team.

Montecito Grand Residence

Wendy Bowman January 31, 2019