You will travel over the Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge, the highest arch bridge in California, if you take CA 154 between Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez. It was the longest bridge of its kind in the world when it opened in 1964.
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El Alamo Pintado Adobe near Solvang has been embedded in the history of Santa Ynez Valley since it was built by two Englishmen in 1884. In 1996, Iris Rideau bought the property, becoming the first Black woman to own a winery in the US.
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The Wolf Store Adobe, built by German immigrant Louis Wolf, is the oldest standing building in Temecula. The earliest known record of it is in the San Diego tax records for 1868, but it may have been built as early as 1863.
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Nicknamed for its Victorian-style facade, the Victor Condo building in Carlsbad, built in the early 1980s, was the first work in the distinctive post-modern “Blendo” style created by San Diego architects Ted Smith and Kathleen McCormick.
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Plans to demolish the Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel, designed by William Pereria, were met with an outcry from preservationists. Efforts to find an adaptive reuse solution appear to lead to a sale of the building.
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The architectural firm of Armet and Davis and Googie style go hand in hand. Their design for Bob’s Big Boy Restaurants was used in numerous locations including the one on Harbor Blvd., now a CoCo’s, in Garden Grove in Orange County.
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The Santa Margarita Ranch House National Historic Site on Camp Pendleton includes the Ranch House, Bunkhouse Museum and Ranch House Chapel. The ranch house, constructed ca. 1827, serves as quarters for Pendleton’s commanding officers.
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