Montecito | Manuel Cervantes
Santa Barbara’s Spanish architecture is what gives the city its life and charm. After the 1925 earthquake, the decision to lean into that language and the work of Spanish Colonial Revival architects like George Washington Smith and Lutah Maria Riggs, created a town that feels unusually cohesive and romantic. Their houses are now treated as collectible homes, not just real estate; people seek them out because they represent a particular moment in Santa Barbara’s history and imagination. 100 years later, this Manuel Cervantes home is a gentle continuation of that narrative. It’s his second built residence in the United States, and the way he incorporated plaster, courtyards, long horizontals, and framed views is rooted in Santa Barbara’s traditions, but in a quieter, more modern vocabulary.
The house is incredibly sensitive to its site, the way the skylights hold views to the sky and the hills makes the landscape feel like part of the architecture, not just a backdrop. Our studio's belief in Manuel Cervantes’ work and Plus’ commitment to building artful homes is that this house will, in time, sit alongside the early Spanish and estate homes that define our town so beautifully, while introducing a new architectural dialect-one that we hope will help guide future development in Montecito in a more thoughtful and artful way.
“The house is a true retreat. It has a calming quality: the outside world is very present and appreciated, but the home itself feels tucked away and private. Manuel Cervantes designed the skylights to pull the sky into the interiors in an exceptionally artful way so you experience the light shifting overhead when you’re inside. The windows frame olive trees and courtyards so that the landscape reads almost like a series of living paintings. The home is a long-term, architecturally significant investment for someone who wants a quiet, considered place to live with architecture.”
“We furnished the home to be a comfortable retreat where every piece quietly supports the architecture. Our goal was for it to feel calm, elemental, and deeply considered. We wanted the interiors to suggest a simplicity of life, a feeling of taking a deep breath the moment you walk inside.”
“My belief in Manuel Cervantes’ work and Plus’ commitment to building artful homes is that this house will, in time, sit alongside the early Spanish and estate homes that define our town so beautifully, while introducing a new architectural dialect-one that I hope will help guide future development in Santa Barbara in a more thoughtful way.”
