The site for the Jay and Ellen McCafferty Studio is a protected landscape of over 6,000 hectares on Hollister Ranch, located a few kilometres north of Santa Barbara, California. On Archinect, Orhan Ayyuce described the site as “a land of fertile hills cascading into the Pacific Ocean where the waves are held holy by surfers. It is an inspirational place that was once the home of indigenous people... Jay McCafferty was a well-known artist for his early conceptual works and his burn paintings...” Ayyuce described the structure as having “oneness with the hills and vistas around it... the building evolves... through a visual expansion, pulling you through its thresholds, connected interiors and exteriors, and pauses... down to the line thicknesses of the shadows, and the playfulness of the curves. More so I could add, its highly refined perspective compositions and textures, some smooth and some rough”.
Jay and Ellen McCafferty Studio, Coy Howard, Santa Barbara, California, USA
He continues, “What is architecture when it’s compared to art? Coy Howard doesn’t describe it, but I sense his way of talking about the geography, short takes on the plan, breaking the building with series of thresholds, topographic references... its blur and clarity conversing and bridging physical and emotional space in sensorial moments. He is the master of internalizing everything and meticulously letting them out in a carefully constructed poetic pace and not freezing them anywhere. The building keeps going in an all-around composition further than its sides, top and bottom. It is the result of extraordinary control of sequential processes... energized by ambiguity and design innocence...”
Jay and Ellen McCafferty Studio, Coy Howard, Santa Barbara, California, USA
When asked for his project text, Coy Howard offered this poem:
Poem for Jay McCafferty The artist’s job, to feel
No logic, just searching
No theory, just sketching
No concepts, just sensibilities
An icon, he wanted
Giving immensity, a voice
Giving intimacy, a touch Giving shapes,
visceral eloquence
Form becoming, feeling
Jay and Ellen McCafferty Studio, Coy Howard, Santa Barbara, California, USA
