California Romantica

by Diane Keaton (Creator), D.J. Waldie, Lisa Hardaway (Photographer)

California Romantica features the most important, yet rarely seen, residential exemplars of the California Mission and Spanish Colonial styles, by such noted architects as George Washington Smith, Wallace Neff, Richard Requa, Lilian Rice, and Paul R. Williams, among others. From whitewashed stucco walls and cloistered patios to tile roofs and sumptuous gardens, each house shown is a rare masterpiece, splendidly appointed with authentic Monterey furniture, California tile, and Navajo rugs. Among the magnificent seaside estates, canyon villas, and courtyard bungalows shown is Diane Keaton’s former home in Beverly Hills, which she thoughtfully restored with noted designer Stephen Shadley, and for which she has been recognized as a committed preservationist. She brings her cinematic eye, a keen sense of natural drama, and a profound appreciation for the nuances of shadow and light to the elucidation of these buildings, through the selection of specially commissioned photography. Authoritative text by D. J. Waldie lucidly explicates the architecture and provides an intimate tour of a historic and distinctly Californian lifestyle.

Genres: Architecture, Interior Design, Photography, Nonfiction

322 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2007

About the author

Diane Keaton (born Diane Hall) was an Academy Award-winning American film actress. Her first major film role was Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather movies. She starred with director and co-star Woody Allen in "Play It Again, Sam," "Sleeper," "Love and Death," "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan." She starred in many other films and worked as a director, producer, and screenwriter.

A number of books of her photography have been published.

Reviews

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous book. Great pictures and analysis of this kind of architecture in California. It profiles about ten houses and gives a little history of the style and vernacular as well as aspirations of the original owners and architects. The focus of the photography is mostly on detail shots. For some of the houses, it was exclusively detail shots. This book would have been even stronger had it shown the entire outside of these houses in one shot. Highly recommended.

[Dorene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the theme of this book and the architecture but I was disappointed in some of the photos used. I wish there were more overall images of each house and not so many specific vignettes. I read the book along side googling each house on my phone to get an overview.
The images used were beautifully shot and well planned. All in all a really nice book on beautiful California architecture.

[Arlene S]

Very narrow "niche" information with photos of "California Spanish Colonial Revival" residences, ( sometimes more broadly generalized to "Mediterranean" architecture), often with modernism influences. Agree with others here -- photos in book tend toward photo art (play of light and shadow) and and focus mostly on detail shots ( Small index photos at end of book shows many front elevations but hard to see these).
From page 78: "George Washington Smith . . . completed fifty-four Santa Barbara and Montecito houses. All were hybrids. Provincial Spain, Morocco, ancient Persia, Tuscan, Mexico, the south of France, and even something of the distained adobes --- Smith worked these traditions into a mixed style that was loosely called Mediterranean."

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful color photos, suitable for framing, of California Spanish Revival Grand Homes.

I'd have liked more photos, but considering these tended to lean more towards artistic rather than photo-journalism....

I gave this a 3.5 because there just wasn't enough information on the history of the homes or enough photographs.... which I attribute to the fact that being the entire book is full one oversized page photograph after photograph, it must have been quite an expense to publish.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is mainly photographs--not a lot of text. The architecture and photographs are beautiful.