Tucked behind a canopy of heritage oaks in Montecito’s Upper Village, The Erving House is a rare architectural treasure—one that fuses sculptural modernism with native California landscape in a way few homes ever have. Designed in 1950 by pioneering architect Lutah Maria Riggs and shaped in concert with legendary landscape architect Thomas Church, this 2.7-acre estate is a living dialogue between building and land—an early and extraordinary expression of indoor-outdoor living.
Riggs—Santa Barbara’s first licensed female architect and a quiet icon of the California modernist movement—crafted a design that lifts lightly from the earth. Time magazine once called the home a “glass tent,” a description that still resonates in the soaring, light-filled volumes and walls of glass that dissolve into curated landscape.
Church, meanwhile, brought his signature “California Living” ethos to the grounds—embracing asymmetry, native plants, and a philosophy that gardens should be lived in, not merely looked at. Recently restored by Susan Van Atta in homage to Church’s original work, the landscape flows through lavender fields, fruit orchards, raised beds, and a bocce court—each element both functional and deeply beautiful…