The Sea Ranch
The Sea Ranch An Environmentally-Planned Community on the Sonoma Coast
The Sea Ranch, California
In the late 70s, I was approached by a client couple whom I had designed a home for at the Sea Ranch. They wanted to build a non-denominational chapel on the Sea Ranch. They asked if I would be the architect and work with the famous sculptor, James Hubbell, on the design.
In addition to being the architect, I was also asked to find the property, entitle the property, and be the project manager and see it through to completion. No problem! It was a labor of love by everyone involved, some of the best craftsmen on the coast showed up to gladly participate. Now, after 35-plus years since its completion, it has given the community a place to worship, contemplate, celebrate, and be a visually striking piece of sculpture in the landscape.
The Chapel
the Links pro Shop
The Links Pro Shop and Cafe was designed to deflect the prevailing northwest winds from the entry and tee-off area. I banked it into the low mound on the northwest side and used the straightforward gable roof to tie it back visually to the typical Sea Ranch style, using natural materials that weathered to a soft gray.
The interior was left as open as possible and over the years it has adapted well to the many different room arrangements.
The Hangars
As the Sea Ranch grew in the ’70’s there were more and more “pilots” who found it easier to fly in than to make the coastal drive to visit their Sea Ranch home. As everyone who has left their car out in the elements at the Sea Ranch knows, the salt laden atmosphere can be a problem. For anyone spending more than just a weekend with their plane open to the elements it is an even greater concern. Carol Emory and her husband Tom Osborne, along with John Wingate,( all pilots), put together some additional pilots to form enough of a committee to build hangars that would be treated as “condominiums” for their airplanes.
Carol, Tom and John approached me to be the architect. Although I had never designed an airplane hangar before I loved the chance to do something different. We started by visiting hangars and hangar builders in California. Traveling in their Moonie aircraft was a great way to see the state from the air! We soon realized that hangars, for small planes, were totally devoid of any creative approach. Designed only for “function” they are just metal clad rectangular boxes. “Ugly” is a kind description. I knew that was not going to work for the Sea Ranch so I started looking for inspiration from the skies and settled on the shape of a bird in flight. Or a chevron shape when viewed from above. Fortunately we had enough land to work with that I could lay them out in such a way that access was easy for all members. One member had a jet so their space had to be larger than the others. As the hangars sit below Timber Ridge Road I placed the low portion of the roof in that location and it rose to the west. Dark metal roofing blends into the landscape.
Due to the large spans required inside, wood was not practical so we choose a steel structure and then clad it with redwood, again to fade to grey and blend in.
As large as the hangars have to be to house the planes I believe they do a good job of sitting in the landscape and becoming a part of it. Equally important to me is that they physically represent what they hold inside.
