The story of how Frank Lloyd Wright's house in Montecito, CA came to be is wonderfully illustrated by Robert Ooley who is a local well-known architect and friend of the current owner of the home, author T.C. Boyle. Robert is also the head of Facilities for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Reading this book is like having a part of Santa Barbara past and present.
Butterfly Wood opens the door into one of the architect’s last commissions of his Prairie Style and is the only example of that time in his career on the west coast of the United States. Located in the secluded enclave of Montecito, California, at the corner of Hot Springs and Summit Roads is this 4,500-square-foot redwood treasure.
This story will weave together the family that wanted a coastal retreat from the hot California interior of the San Joaquin Valley, a world-renowned embattled architect, and the house they made together. “The enclosed space within is the reality of the building,” Wright exclaimed. We realize that it was Emily Stewart who loved the natural beauty of the site as its architect would and named the house Butterfly Wood after the multitudes of Monarch butterflies that roosted in the trees surrounding the house.