Rancho Rinconada, Cupertino, California

Rancho Rinconada
—  Neighborhood  —
Rancho Rinconada Location within the Santa Clara Valley
Coordinates: 37.3164°N 122°W / 37.3164; -122
Country	United States
State	California
County	Santa Clara
City	Cupertino

Rancho Rinconada is a residential neighborhood in the eastern part of Cupertino, California. It is bordered by Saratoga Creek (just west of Lawrence Expressway), Stevens Creek Boulevard, Miller Road, and Bollinger Road. Cupertino High School, Sedgwick Elementary School, and Hyde Middle School serve Rancho Rinconada.

Original flyer for the neighborhood showing typical floorplans

The homes in Rancho Rinconada were originally low cost single-story houses built in the 1950s by builders Stern and Price. These ranch houses or "ranchos" were based on a Cliff May modular design and marketed under the name "Miracle House". Similar projects were later undertaken in Palo Alto, CA and Long Beach, CA.

The modular construction and materials used were designed to keep the cost of construction to a bare minimum in order to produce a very affordable home. This modular design reduced materials and man hours to the point where a single home could be put up in a single day.

For the Rancho Rinconada development, savings started with the low cost rural property for a new subdivision project of almost 1,000 new homes. Foundations on concrete slabs required shallow footings for the light weight nature of the designs giving savings from shallow digging and less concrete required. The modules along with the rest of the building material to erect the home were delivered at each building site in a pile where the materials were stacked in order of what needed to be assembled first starting at the top of the pile working down to the bottom.

The primary building modules consisted of sections 5 ft. 4 in. (60 in.) wide by 7ft. 2 in. (86 in.) tall. With a top plate added to secure the modules the wall height on the perimeter of the building is then 90 inches. The top plate extended out on the end of the house to give wide overhand that is one of the definitive attributes of a ranch style home. There were three basic modules: a framing module of 2X4's with two horizontal 2X4's spaced 30 inches apart between the top and bottom of the module; a window module of the same dimensions as the framing module but divided into 4 equally sized section of glass from top to bottom; a "half-module" where the upper half of a framing module was divided into two section of glass, where on section of the glass was framed and hinged to swing open.

There was one other type of module used in these homes, but not used for any load bearing. It was a long narrow right triangle module of glass to fit into the gaps at each end of the home between the wall and the roof line (2 on each end). The class module was to let even more light in where one can see the sky. It was also hinged to the top plate of the wall that it could be tilted open to let fresh air in.

Like some erector set, these modules were set up on the concrete slab in an order for a particular design of the home. As one module was set up and attached to another, you would have in effect 4x4 posts at each connecting point where you have four horizontal 2X4's spaced 30 inches apart (just like the structure of a fence). Down the center and for the length of the home stretched an assembly of 2X12's to make a 4X12 ridge beam on which to rest the roofing joists on. The roofing structure consisted of 4X4's laid from this ridge beam to the outer walls and centered over the module's connecting points for the load bearing, while other half of the 4X4's lay in the middle of a module where there was no load bearing support. Like the horizontal boards in the modules, the 4X4's are 30 inches apart. These 4X4's are the roof joists to be viewed as the open beam design of the home. The roof that lays on top of these joists/beams is 3 inches of a very light weight vertex type of material (like you might see on mobile homes) covered with a light coating of tar and gravel for weather proofing.

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  An areal view of the Ranch Rinconada site under development

With the two horizontal boards between the top and bottom, it was an easy put on a Board & Batten siding and it only took four 16 penny nails per board. Like a fence, the boards went on fast and easy and with no consideration for insulation. Of course, energy savings was not much of an issue at all at in those times. With the huge amount of single pane glass the Board & Batten siding with no insulation. . . these homes are very poor for retaining any heat or cooling.

The wood used for the Board & Batten siding was very high quality. But it wasn't chosen for that reason. The Board & Batten wood used were 1X12 rough sawn Redwood and it was very clear Redwood. At the time, Redwood was very abundant and very cheap. Much of it came from local mills.

During construction the modular design made it easy to add to or take away from the size of any particular Rancho home. For example in the 3 bedroom 1 bath design, to get a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home, one more module added to the length at the back of the home provided plenty of room a standard bathroom with tub and at the same time made the master bedroom that 5 ft. larger with its own private bath. Now you can get a king sized bed in the Master Bedrooom along with other bedroom furniture. This 3 bedroom two bath configuration was a popular build at Rancho Rinconada.

While the use of this modular construction was a wonder for building very inexpensive homes of the ranch style that was so popular of the period, there were draw backs as time and community living styles changed. This module design is not flexible for change. Because of the size and nature of the modules for the Rancho homes, nothing is of standard or in a standard location (e.g. doors, windows light switches, electrical outlets, board spacing, etc.) Want to change a door, you either get a custom door made or get a standard one and cut it to size. Want to change windows, you've got to get custom windows or reconstruct the window opening to fit standard sizes. Want to change to a better (heavier) roof? Adding or chaning wiring was a challenge due the modular design. You've got problems because of the wide 60 inch spaces between vertical support and the fence like structure of the modules. Want to add a second story, then you've got to change the module construction to the more standard construction and beef up the foundation for the area as the foundation is not designed for more that what it is already carrying.

Since the Rancho Rinconada home residences lived outside of any city limits up until the 1990s and only subject to county regulations, modifications to the home were not tightly regulated as typically found within a city limit. Over the years, many homes in Rancho were remodeled or changed in some way, and much was done without regard to building codes or good building practices.

With the advent of the era for two income families came the need for two car garages, which became more prevalent in the 1960's. Rancho Rinconada homes were built with one-car car ports. More time saving kitchen appliances were going into kitchens. The 1970's brought the Microwave Oven in as a common kitchen appliance, but the Rancho kitchen was not designed with but a couple of low amp outlets connected to the other house's outlets and a total of two electrical breakers for the whole house. Then computers and their peripherals came alone in the late 80's putting even more demand on a home's electrical system for which Rancho homes were not designed.

As various city boundaries surrounded the county (Santa Clara County) pocket containing Rancho Rinconada, land values rose and its location relative to the high tech industry made it become a desirable location. Rancho Rinconada was no longer the blue collar rural community located among cherry orchards. It became a community located in the heart of the high tech industry explosion and surrounded by high tech growth and it's highly educated white collar workers. But for a good part of the 1970's and 1980's it was a neighborhood in decline that facilitated a lot of undesirable activities.

But, residence of Rancho Rinconada's had the privilege of a Cupertino mailing address, which by itself lends to higher land values than surrounding cities, and shared the acclaim of the famed Cupertino schools. As the high tech industry drew more and more Asian engineers and managers whose culture emphasizes education, Cupertino became a highly desirable area for them. Though not a part of the City of Cupertino, Rancho gave a low cost avenue for families to get their children into one of the very best school systems. Along with the strong desire to put their children in a good schools, these there often extended families that would live in the same household. Larger houses were needed for such families and Rancho was the place to get a larger housing at the cheapest price for the Cupertino schools.

A small local Asian contractor targeting this market began buying some of the old dilapidated Rancho homes and doing major remodel and additions. A particular building plan was duplicated for a two story addition with a two car garage that was attached onto the old Rancho building. When done, the new structure was as a standard construction two story home of about 2,000 sq. ft. doubling the living space of the old Rancho home. The part that was the old Rancho building was totally updated including materials. The finished product was a larger house that resembled a typical standard 70's style two story home (no upscale materials, finish or appliances). About a dozen homes in Rancho Rinconada were converted this way. A few other small contractors saw the success of this and performed copy cat work in Rancho. By the mid 1990's, the value for the Rancho properties that had the original homes was now almost all in the land alone as the old Rancho homes held little value due to the nature of their cheap construction. The expense of bringing the old modular construction to modern standards had become cost prohibitive. Rather than do a major remodel, it was simply cheaper to tear the old Rancho home down and rebuild from scratch. Building from scratch gave the builder more flexibility in what to build and gave one a better built house to meet modern standards.

By the mid 1990's many contractors, particularly some Asians ones, were knocking down the old Rancho buildings and building from scratch. And to get as much profit as possible from the property they would build as big as they could. This resulted in many newly built "Pink Mansions" of the two story 3,000 - 3,500 sq. ft. type on standard lots of 5,500 sq. ft.

Near the end of the 1990s, a portion of the neighborhood bordering San Jose along Lawrence Expressway was annexed by the city and contractors then began construction on large, executive style homes. Rancho Rinconada then became a target for wealthy Silicon Valley executives, as the county's development laws, to which the rest of the neighborhood was subject, allowed remodeling or rebuilding a home up to the size of the largest home in the immediate area. Additionally, the county did not have community input or review of building plans. As a result, families employed in high-tech industries bought property in unincorporated Rancho Rinconada and demolished the existing houses to build new "monster houses".

In March 1999, the residents of the unincorporated part of Rancho Rinconada voted to be annexed to Cupertino, with the promise of more restrictive property development procedures and improved services to the neighborhood. Later that month, the Cupertino City Council voted into law a bill that required neighborhood comment and reduced the percentage of a lot that could be covered by a building.

The "irrational exuberance" at the dawn of the new millennium brought another paradigm shift in the remodeling and construction of homes in the Rancho Rinconada neighborhood. Not only were large homes being built, but high-end materials, fixtures and appliances were incorporated to market as executive homes for high income families. Though there were restrictions put in place that reduced the percentage of the lot that could be built above ground, the contractors went underground building underground living space to maintain a large available living space for an executive class home.

As one meanders through the Rancho Rinconada neighborhood in the summe of 2010 enjoying the shade of the mature street trees, one might marvel at the eclectic group of homes from the old cheaply built Rancho home of the 1950's that still stand to the high-end executive homes of the 2000's that make up what is known a Rancho Rinconada of Cupertino, CA

The neighborhood is bordered by the West San Jose neighborhood to the east and south, central Cupertino to the west, and the city of Santa Clara to the north.

37.3164°N 122°W / 37.3164; -122 (Rancho Rinconada)