12/19/2020
Sea Ranch.
From Dezeen, by Eleanor Gibson 25 September 2018
Sea Ranch architects championed sustainable development
The Sea Ranch is celebrated as one of the best collections of modernist architecture on America's West Coast.
Established in the early 1960s, the community is populated with simple timber retreats that combine the era's popular modernist architectural style, integration with natural landscape, and environmental and sustainable strategies.
The Sea Ranch was the brainchild of American architect and developer Al Boeke, who enlisted landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and a group of Bay Area architects to build new type of neighbourhood on the rugged plot.
A former employee of modernist architect Richard Neutra, Boeke's ambition was to create an affordable neighbourhood, rich in architectural flourish and community spirt. The idea contrasted other "manicured" developments that were cropping up elsewhere in America around the same time.
Aim was for more than "just a group of pretty houses"
"[Boeke] was very interested in new towns: the European interest in not suburbs, but pre-suburbs," Fletcher told Dezeen. "The idea that you could have everything in a city but on a smaller scale, as well as access to agriculture that would be sustainable for that little community."
Previously occupied by indigenous Pomo Indians, loggers and a sheep ranch, the site's natural features range from rugged coast to meadows and then forest. The major Highway 1 cuts through the site, but efforts were made to lessen its impact on the area as much as possible.
www.dezeen.com/2018/09/25/interview-sea-ranch-architecture-environment-idealism-jennifer-dunlop-fletcher-sfmoma/amp/
