Architectural Record 2015-04

61
PHOTOGRAPHY: © JIM ALINDER
if you drive north from San Francisco, along the wildly
beautiful Sonoma coast beyond the Russian River, you eventually
arrive at the Sea Ranch. Stretching along 10 miles of
rugged cliffs that hover above the crashing waves of the
Pacific, this enclave of weathered weekend houses began as a
unique experiment in design. Scattered over 4,000 acres, the
community was planned in the idealistic spirit of the 1960s—
it was a satellite, in a way, of the countercultural capitals of
Berkeley and San Francisco, 100 miles to the south. Even the
name—the Sea Ranch—conjured up a romantic utopia and
spoke to the primacy of the natural surroundings, while the
simple early houses, clad in boards or shingles, with shed
roofs, nestled self-effacingly into the windswept meadows or
forest hillsides. The highly prescribed architecture of the
development meant that the structures were “not to be
married to the site but to enter into a limited partnership
with it,” as the original architects put it.
Those prescriptions were filed as detailed covenants with
the property’s title in May 1965. Now, as the Sea Ranch
celebrates its 50th anniversary, both newcomers and longtime
residents are still grappling with the ideals set forth by
its original planner, Lawrence Halprin (1916–2009), the landscape
architect. He had been hired by Oceanic Properties,
the Hawaii-based developer that bought the timber and
grazing lands for $2.3 million in 1963, to plan a new town of
second homes. Halprin’s enchanting hand-drawn sketches
ISN’T IT ROMANTIC?
Condominium One,
in all its rustic majesty,
presides over an
outcropping above
the Pacific.