Exhibition

The Sea Ranch

Architecture, Environment, and Idealism

December 22, 2018–June 2, 2019

Floor 6

Distinctive architecture, uninhibited ocean views, bold supergraphics, shared open space, and meditative tranquility — these were the beginnings of The Sea Ranch, a beacon of Modernism on the Northern California coast. Designed by a small group of Bay Area architects and designers in the early 1960s, the development was envisioned as a progressive, inclusive community, guided by the idealistic principles of good design, economy of space, and harmony with the natural environment.

This exhibition brings together original sketches and drawings from the project’s designers, along with archival images, photographs of The Sea Ranch today, and a full-scale architectural replica. The environmentally attentive design philosophies explored at The Sea Ranch, along with the now-iconic graphics, resonated globally and continue to influence architecture and design today.

Exhibition Preview

black and white landscape photo of a wooden building

Sea Ranch people at a beach walking balancing on wood bark

Aerial view of The Sea Ranch, 2015; photo: Iwan Baan

South entrance marker, Black Point Barn, and Condominium One, 1965; Morley Baer Photography Trust; photo: © Morley Baer, courtesy Special Collections, University Library, University of California Santa Cruz. Morley Baer Photographs, 1951–89

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Sea Ranch Design Brochure, ca. 1965; collection SFMOMA, gift of Barbara Stauffacher Solomon; © Barbara Stauffacher Solomon; photo: Don Ross

Experiments in Environment, ca. 1968; Lawrence Halprin Collection, The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania; photo: © Lawrence Halprin

Lawrence Halprin, Locational Score for The Sea Ranch, 1981; Lawrence Halprin Collection, The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania; © Lawrence Halprin

Lawrence Halprin, Sea Ranch Ecoscore, ca. 1968; Lawrence Halprin Collection, The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania; © Lawrence Halprin

On a ten-mile stretch of the Northern California coast lies the site of a radical architectural experiment. Learn the story behind The Sea Ranch, a place where environment informs geometry and buildings embody ideals.

Exhibition Catalogue

This large-format and generously illustrated book captures the visionary approach to the land embraced in designs for The Sea Ranch, the planned community that has become a touchstone of 1960s West Coast modernism.

Major support for The Sea Ranch: Architecture, Environment, and Idealism is provided by the Gensler Family Foundation and The Coastal Real Estate Company – Liisberg & Kalinoski.

Generous support is provided by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Estate of Arnold A. Grossman, The Sanger Family Architecture and Design Exhibition Fund, and the Diane and Howard Zack Fund for Architecture and Design.

Additional support is provided by Sydney and Ray Feeney.

Header image: (mobile) South entrance marker, Black Point Barn, and Condominium One; Special Collections, University Library, University of California Santa Cruz; photographed by Morley Baer, 1965; © 2018 the Morley Baer Photography Trust, Santa Fe. All rights reserved. Used by permission.