Apparently, you'd never encounter these American architects "reclining in a magazine ad for shoes and sheets." But we like them anyway. Named after a mythic spoilsport blamed for ruining rural New Jersey, Jersey Devil is notorious for totally over-the-top works peppering the northern hemisphere. Jim Adamson, Steve Badanes and John Ringel, who take part in the actual construction of their designs, have worked in various combinations since the early 70s. At first, the three fancied themselves as "citizen-designer-craftspeople" (the earliest knotty-wood hippie houses are scary). Then they made pods with a solar and environmental emphasis. (We'll take them.) And finally, their big houses have sharpened up beach and clifftops alike. As the 1988-89 Baja California "Casa Mariposa" (shown on the cover) illustrates, they do a devil of a job.