Spotlight Architect | Mary McLaughlin Craig

The woman behind the Montecito look

Spanish Colonial Revival architecture is the signature style of Santa Barbara and Montecito. And behind many of those white stucco walls, red tile roofs, intimate courtyards, and graceful arches was Mary McLaughlin Craig.

Working during a time when few women were recognized in architecture, Craig started designing homes with her husband and partner, architect James Osborne Craig, and then under her own name, after his sudden death in 1922. Her enduring work has defined Montecito’s architectural identity to this day.

Signature Project

One of her earliest and most remarkable works remains 680 Buena Vista Drive ($32,950,000), originally commissioned in 1927 as the Slater House. The recent restoration by Xorin Balbes carefully honors Craig’s original vision of an interconnected residential village while introducing modern comforts with remarkable restraint, making it difficult to distinguish where the original architecture ends and the renovation begins.

Nearly a century later, her vision still reflects a deep connection between architecture and the landscape.

What Happened in Montecito Last Week?

May 17th – May 23rd

weekly spotlight

Memorial Day - Let "Summer" Begin

Happy Memorial Day — the unofficial start of summer in Santa Barbara & Montecito.

Summer here has a way of making everyday life feel even more like a vacation (once we make it through the June gloom). Beach mornings return, restaurant patios fill up, and our town settles back into a rhythm that makes the Central Coast feel so special this time of year.

Today, make sure to catch the beloved I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival at Old Mission Santa Barbara, where artists transform the plaza into a vibrant open-air gallery of chalk pastel artwork. Also returning for the season is Butterflies Alive! at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, alongside the unmistakable energy that arrives with summer on the American Riviera.

That sums it up for last week!

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