Cliff May homes in Brentwood cluster in Sullivan Canyon, where the architect lived, built, and died. A 2026 guide to what they cost and how to buy one.
Yes. Cliff May designed multiple custom homes in Sullivan Canyon and the adjacent Riviera Ranch development in Brentwood from the early 1940s through the 1970s, and he lived in Sullivan Canyon at his personal residence, Mandalay, until his death in 1989. Cliff May homes in Brentwood currently range from roughly $6 million for smaller original examples to over $20 million for renovated, expanded estates with equestrian facilities, trading well above the Brentwood median price per square foot because of architectural pedigree and the scarcity of original examples.
Cliff May designed homes in Sullivan Canyon, the equestrian enclave on the Brentwood and Pacific Palisades border, from the early 1940s through the 1970s. He also lived there. He died there, in 1989, at his own ranch house called Mandalay. Brentwood is one of Los Angeles's most established luxury real estate markets, and Cliff May homes sit at its architectural pinnacle.
If you are searching for Cliff May homes in Brentwood, or for an architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles who understands what makes these homes valuable, this is the post. Debbie Pisaro is a California broker who specializes in architectural, historic, and design-forward luxury homes across Brentwood and the wider Westside. Cliff May properties come up often in her conversations with buyers and sellers, and Sullivan Canyon is the address most people don't realize they should be looking at.
Who Cliff May was
Cliff May is widely credited with inventing the California Ranch house in 1932, in San Diego, with a low-slung pitched roof and a floor plan that wrapped around a courtyard. He moved to Los Angeles in 1935, never formally trained as an architect, and was not licensed until 1988, one year before his death, when the state granted licenses to longtime registered designers. He designed over one thousand custom residences and, with collaborator Chris Choate, the prefab plans for more than eighteen thousand tract ranch homes.
What makes a Cliff May home recognizable: pitched shiplap ceilings, terracotta tile floors, deep eaves, French doors opening from nearly every room to a courtyard or patio, an L-shaped or U-shaped plan that creates an outdoor room at the center, and a horizontal silhouette that hugs the land rather than asserting itself above it. Indoor-outdoor before anyone called it that.
Cliff May is often grouped with A. Quincy Jones, Joseph Eichler, and William Krisel in the mid-century California Modernist canon, but the work is distinct. Eichler's Northern California developments favored post-and-beam construction with central atriums and floor-to-ceiling glass, more geometric and cooler in temperament. Quincy Jones brought a refined modernist line to LA residential work. Krisel built thousands of butterfly-roof tract homes in Palm Springs. Cliff May sits closer to the land, closer to the Spanish Colonial precedent, and closer to the indoor-outdoor California vernacular he essentially created.
Why Sullivan Canyon
Sullivan Canyon sits between Brentwood and Pacific Palisades, north of Sunset Boulevard, west of Mandeville Canyon. It is zoned for equestrian use. The streets have no sidewalks. Sycamores and oaks form a canopy over most of the canyon floor. There is no commercial frontage inside the canyon itself, which is part of why it remains one of the quietest pockets on the Westside despite being four miles from the Pacific and minutes from the Brentwood Country Mart and Riviera Country Club.
Cliff May chose this canyon for himself. His personal residence, Mandalay, sat on roughly fifteen acres in the Santa Monica Mountains here. He designed homes for his neighbors on Old Ranch Road, on Sullivan Canyon Road, and across the adjacent Riviera Ranch development of twenty-four ranch sites that he laid out in 1940 with First National Financial Corporation and developer John Smith, directly across Sunset Boulevard from the Riviera Country Club polo fields. The 1947 George Welch House at 10 Sullivan Canyon is documented in the Cliff May registry. The 1976 Bea Arthur addition at 2000 Old Ranch Road, originally a 1924 rancho expanded by May for the Maude star, is also in the registry.
What are Cliff May homes in Brentwood selling for in 2026?
Brentwood, the 90049 zip code, is one of the most established luxury real estate markets in Los Angeles, anchored by the Getty Center, San Vicente Boulevard's coral tree median, and the Brentwood Country Mart. The neighborhood's median list price ran roughly $3.31 million in May 2026, with a median price per square foot of approximately $1,067. Active luxury single-family inventory in Brentwood routinely ranges from the mid-single-digit millions to well over $20 million, with multiple homes listed in Sullivan Canyon, Mandeville Canyon, and Brentwood Park between $15 million and $30 million.
What separates Brentwood from other Westside luxury markets is the combination of mature architecture, large lots, and constrained supply. The neighborhood is essentially built out, so architectural pedigree matters here in a way it does not in markets where buyers expect to tear down and rebuild. Beyond Cliff May, Brentwood holds other architecturally significant residences including Richard Neutra's Nesbitt House and Steven Ehrlich's Schulman House. Many of Debbie's Brentwood clients are also actively shopping a second home along the California coast, where the same architectural and lifestyle priorities apply on a different geographic canvas. See the Malibu, Montecito, and Carmel guide for 2026 coastal buyers.
Two recent Brentwood real estate transactions anchor the value conversation, and they sit at very different points on the spectrum.
In July 2024, Ben Affleck paid $20.5 million for a Cliff May designed estate at 13233 Riviera Ranch Road in Sullivan Canyon, known as "Paradise Found," with over six thousand square feet, five bedrooms, an equestrian center, a guesthouse, a pool, and a spa. The previous owners had purchased the property for roughly $4 million in 2010, renovated extensively, and listed at $21.5 million. The sale represented a roughly five-times appreciation across fourteen years of ownership, with significant renovation capital invested.
At the other end of the spectrum, a smaller, more original Cliff May currently listed at 1784 Old Ranch Road, also in Sullivan Canyon, is asking $6,495,000 for four bedrooms and 2,236 square feet of main house living, on a 16,165 square foot lot. The home was profiled by Dwell in 2024 as a rare example of an original Cliff May with intact pitched shiplap ceilings, terracotta tile, and a courtyard plan. A second Cliff May in Sullivan Canyon, remodeled by architect Peter Choate AIA, is also currently on the market as a three-bedroom single-story.
Cliff May homes in Sullivan Canyon trade at or above the upper end of the Brentwood luxury range because of architectural pedigree, lot size, equestrian zoning, and the scarcity of original examples. Here is what that looks like in table form for buyers and sellers trying to triangulate.
| Property | Year | Beds | Sq ft | Price | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paradise Found, 13233 Riviera Ranch Rd | 1941 | 5 | 6,200+ | $20,500,000 | Sold July 2024 |
| 1784 Old Ranch Rd, Sullivan Canyon | 1953 | 4 | 2,236 main | $6,495,000 | Active |
| Sullivan Canyon Cliff May (Peter Choate remodel) | mid-century | 3 + office | n/a | Active luxury inventory | Active |
| Brentwood 90049 median list price | n/a | n/a | n/a | $3,310,000 | May 2026 |
| Brentwood 90049 median price per sq ft | n/a | n/a | n/a | $1,067 | May 2026 |
| Brentwood 90049 luxury closed sales sample | n/a | n/a | n/a | $7.6M to $13.0M | Closed Jan 2026 |
The takeaway: an authentic, original Cliff May with provenance and Sullivan Canyon land trades well above the Brentwood median per square foot. A renovated and expanded Cliff May estate with equestrian facilities can clear $20 million. The architecture itself carries the premium. There are very few of these homes, and the supply is essentially closed. They do not build new Cliff May houses.
Can a Cliff May home qualify for the Mills Act?
For Brentwood Cliff May buyers, two preservation programs materially affect ownership economics. Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument designation is the city's local landmark status. The Mills Act is a California state program that offers property tax reduction in exchange for a preservation commitment. HCM status is the recognition; the Mills Act is the financial benefit, and a property generally needs HCM or comparable historic designation to be eligible.
Cliff May homes can and do qualify for HCM designation. The Robert and Jean Hatcher Residence at 6230 Hilldale Drive, designed by Cliff May with landscape architecture by Thomas Church, is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 716, with the city's official report citing the property as an embodiment of California Ranch architecture and a work by master designer Cliff May. Multiple other Cliff May residences across Los Angeles have either been designated or surveyed as eligible. Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Brentwood, the Westside of Los Angeles, and the surrounding neighborhoods, and she has advised on selling Mills Act and HCM homes across the city.
The Mills Act is where the math gets interesting. Properties enrolled in Mills Act contracts in Los Angeles typically receive a 40 to 60 percent reduction in annual property taxes, in some cases higher, depending on how the County Assessor calculates the alternative income-based valuation. The contract is a revolving ten-year agreement, automatically renewing each year, and crucially it runs with the property. If a Brentwood Cliff May with a pre-existing Mills Act contract goes on the market, the new buyer inherits that contract and the associated tax savings. A Sullivan Canyon home assessed at $8 million with a standard 1.25 percent tax rate would carry a roughly $100,000 annual tax bill. With a Mills Act contract reducing the assessment, that bill can drop substantially. For a fuller treatment of the program, see the Los Feliz HCM guide.
There is one important current caveat for buyers thinking about pursuing a new Mills Act contract on a Brentwood Cliff May. The City of Los Angeles has not accepted new Mills Act contract applications since 2020, pending a program assessment that is still working through the city's planning process as of 2026. Existing contracts continue and continue to transfer to new buyers. Unincorporated Los Angeles County still accepts new contracts, but Brentwood sits within the City of Los Angeles, so City rules apply. If you are buying a Brentwood Cliff May specifically for the Mills Act benefit, the practical answer is to look for properties that already carry a contract rather than expecting to obtain one after closing.
The City of Los Angeles has not accepted new Mills Act contract applications since 2020. Existing contracts continue to transfer with the property.
What to look for in a Cliff May in Brentwood
Three things matter when evaluating a Cliff May home in Sullivan Canyon or anywhere on the Westside. First, integrity. The most valuable Cliff May homes are the ones that have not been opened up, modernized, or stripped of their pitched ceilings and tile floors. Brentwood luxury buyers in this category know that an "improved" Cliff May is often a diminished one. Second, courtyard plan intact. The central courtyard is the architectural argument of the house. If it has been enclosed or paved over, the home has lost what makes it a Cliff May rather than a generic ranch. Third, the lot. Sullivan Canyon lots tend to run larger than typical Brentwood lots because of the equestrian zoning, and the relationship between the house and the land is a Cliff May principle, not an accessory.
Original fireplaces and outdoor fire features sometimes carry inspection findings that sellers will not credit or repair. Verify chimneys, hearths, and any gas line work independently. Roofs, skylights, and the original wood-beam structure should be assessed by someone familiar with mid-century construction, not a generalist.
On the other side of the equation, some Brentwood Cliff May owners reach a point where the canyon-driving and large-lot maintenance no longer fit the chapter they're in. If you're in that conversation, Debbie's post on Los Angeles empty nesters and branded residences walks through the trade-down options at Aman, One Beverly Hills, Rosewood, and Prive Malibu.
Where else to find Cliff May in Los Angeles
Brentwood is the most concentrated pocket for Cliff May customs, but he built elsewhere across Los Angeles. Rancho Estates in Long Beach holds more than seven hundred prefab Cliff May ranch homes laid out with Chris Choate in 1953 and 1954, which remain the most accessible entry point into Cliff May ownership in Southern California. Scattered Cliff May homes exist in Mandeville Canyon, Pacific Palisades, Bel Air, and the Fryman Canyon area of Studio City. Each pocket has its own price ceiling and architectural integrity profile.
If your taste runs further into mid-century modernism, the same architectural ecosystem includes Pierre Koenig's Stahl House, Case Study House #22, one of the most photographed houses in Los Angeles. For a fuller view of what Debbie covers as an architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles, see the architectural homes hub. Her statewide brokerage, Coastline 840, covers architecturally significant homes across California.
Frequently asked questions
Are there Cliff May homes in Brentwood?
Yes. Cliff May designed multiple custom homes in Sullivan Canyon and the adjacent Riviera Ranch development in Brentwood from the early 1940s through the 1970s. He also lived in Sullivan Canyon at his personal residence, Mandalay, and died there in 1989.
What are Cliff May homes in Brentwood selling for in 2026?
Cliff May homes in Brentwood currently range from roughly $6 million for smaller original examples to over $20 million for renovated, expanded estates with equestrian facilities. Reference points include Ben Affleck's July 2024 purchase of "Paradise Found" at 13233 Riviera Ranch Road for $20.5 million and a 1953 Cliff May at 1784 Old Ranch Road listed at $6.495 million.
What is the average price of a luxury home in Brentwood?
Brentwood luxury single-family homes trade across a wide range, with 2026 inventory running from the mid-single-digit millions to over $25 million in pockets like Sullivan Canyon, Mandeville Canyon, and Brentwood Park. The 90049 zip code carried a median list price near $3.31 million as of May 2026, with a median price per square foot of roughly $1,067.
Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Brentwood?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Brentwood, the Westside of Los Angeles, and the surrounding neighborhoods. Her practice covers the full Brentwood luxury market with a deeper specialty in architectural and historic homes, including Cliff May, Schindler, Neutra, and Lautner properties.
What is Sullivan Canyon known for?
Sullivan Canyon is an equestrian-zoned enclave on the border of Brentwood and Pacific Palisades, known for its concentration of original California Ranch homes including multiple Cliff May designs. The canyon has no sidewalks, no commercial frontage, and a tree canopy of mature sycamores and oaks. It is one of the most private residential pockets on the Westside.
What is a California Ranch house?
The California Ranch house is a single-story residential style developed by Cliff May beginning in 1932, characterized by a low-slung pitched roof, horizontal orientation, courtyard or U-shaped plan, deep eaves, and a strong indoor-outdoor relationship through French doors and patios. It became the dominant single-family form in postwar America.
Where did Cliff May live?
Cliff May lived at his personal estate, Mandalay, in Sullivan Canyon in Brentwood, on roughly fifteen acres in the Santa Monica Mountains. He died there in 1989 at the age of eighty-three, having spent decades designing homes for the neighbors who shared his canyon.
Can a Cliff May home qualify for the Mills Act in Los Angeles?
Yes. Cliff May homes are eligible for Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument designation, and HCM status is the typical pathway to a Mills Act contract. The Hatcher Residence at 6230 Hilldale Drive is designated HCM No. 716. However, Los Angeles has not accepted new Mills Act applications since 2020, so the practical path is a property already carrying a contract.
What is the difference between a Cliff May home and an Eichler home?
Cliff May invented the California Ranch and worked mainly in Southern California: pitched shiplap ceilings, terracotta floors, deep eaves, and a courtyard plan from the Spanish rancho tradition. Eichlers, concentrated in Northern California, are post-and-beam Modernist tract homes with low-pitched roofs, atriums, and floor-to-ceiling glass. May is warmer and rustic; Eichler cooler and geometric.
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published July 2026.
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com
USModernist Cliff May registry; Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission HCM No. 716 designation report; Los Angeles Conservancy, City of Los Angeles Mills Act Program status updates; Robb Report, Ben Affleck purchase of Paradise Found, July 2024; Dwell, profile of 1784 Old Ranch Road, December 2024; Movoto, Brentwood 90049 market data, May 2026; Redfin, Brentwood 90049 closed sales sample, January 2026.