recommended reading
• WILLIAM KRISEL’S PALM SPRINGS: THE LANGUAGE OF MODERNISM by Heidi Creighton & Chris Menard (Gibbs Smith 2016) The first major publication on the work of Krisel, a Southern California architect who also designed MCM houses for the middle class.
• CLIFF MAY AND THE MODERN RANCH HOUSE by Daniel P. Gregory (Rizzoli 2008) The designer’s houses from the Depression years through the 1960s.
• ATOMIC RANCH by Michelle Gringeri–Brown (Gibbs Smith 2006) A beautifully photographed book covering the postwar ranch, 1946 to 1970, with an emphasis on Modern design. Includes Eichler homes and those in Palm Springs, but also brick ranches and split-levels around the country.
• THE RANCH HOUSE by Alan Hess (Harry N. Abrams 2004) Offering a broad but defensible definition of the Ranch in all its forms, the book draws parallels with Bungalow and Modern architecture. The bulk of the book is a 140-page chapter showing 26 restored homes (built 1935–1968).
• EICHLER: MODERNISM REBUILDS THE AMERICAN DREAM by Paul Adamson (Gibbs Smith 2003) With period photos by Ernie Braun and Julius Shulman, this one captures the essence of Eichler, the builder who reshaped middle-class houses with his combination of architectural panache and social conscience. History, architecture, photos old and new.
• FURNITURE & INTERIORS OF THE 1940S by Anne Bony (Flammarion 2003) The modern, if contradictory, transitional interiors of the immediate postwar period.
• WESTERN RANCH HOUSES BY CLIFF MAY by Cliff May and Paul C. Johnson (Hennessey & Ingalls 1999) Reissue of the 1958 volume, includes later modernist designs by May.
• SUNSET WESTERN RANCH HOUSES by Sunset Books edited by Cliff May (Hennessey & Ingalls, 1997) Re-issue of the first edition of 1946, the beginning of the genre.
• EICHLER HOMES, DESIGN FOR LIVING by Jerry Ditto (Chronicle Books 1995) The first book on Eichler, documenting the breadth of his influence.