A unique experiment
Architecture, Environment & Idealism
The Sea Ranch in the News
Digital Exhibit: Journey to The Sea Ranch
Journey to The Sea Ranch digital exhibit engages visitors with archival collections through a series of visually-rich stories, including a comprehensive timeline of the creative process and tours of the built environment. Brought together for the first time in digital format, these materials, including drawings, photographs, and manuscripts, animate the core principles and drives behind one of the most significant architectural and ecological planning projects of the twentieth century.
Take a self-guided tour
Architecture, Landscape and Intentions
Where to Start and Directions:: Begin at the main entry doors to the Sea Ranch Lodge located at 60 Sea Walk Drive, The Sea Ranch, CA.
When to take the tour: Any day of the week only during daylight hours.
Walk length: Approx 2 hours for entire tour.
Public parking: At the Sea Ranch Lodge or at the nearby Sonoma County Black Point Public Access parking lot (closes at sunset).
What to bring: Your mobile device or printed Guide, the Map (access via your mobile device or print a copy), trail-worthy shoes, and a warm jacket for windy days.
Download Placenotes: The Sea Ranch Digital Edition
PLACENOTES is a travel guide that seeks to lead people to places that truly matter. It by-passes all of the ordinary, mass-produced places that now surround us, and instead, guides us to the places that move, inspire, and amuse us, to places that linger in our memories and imagination.
PLACENOTES is now wholly and wonderfully digital as an App available for all of your mobile devices, both smartphones and tablets.
The Unbeaten Path Guided Tour
The tour provides guests with dynamic dialog as well as spectacular views of many of the famous, better known structures of The Sea Ranch, such as Condo 1 by MLTW and the classic "sod-roofed" houses of Joseph Esherick as well as an expansive view of Phase One of the development period of The Sea Ranch (great for photography). In addition, Margaret Lindgren, owner & guide of Unbeaten Path Tours, encourages guests through her enthusiasm to delve beyond the concepts of Lawrence Halprin's masterplan of The Sea Ranch by engaging them in deeper conversation of the region's history, geology, oceanography and ecology thus connecting guests uniquely to all facets of the what is today The Sea Ranch.
Beauty of Sea Ranch Commons
In 1965, a group of young architects- inspired by the local Pomo Indians’ belief in “living lightly on the land”- began planning a community where the buildings blend with the terrain and instead of yards, there are “commons”: miles of shared fields, oceanfront and walking trails.
“It’s about experiencing the place rather than following a golf ball or something,” explains Sea Ranch architect Donlyn Lyndon. “One of the things most important about The Sea Ranch is that half of the land is held in commons. When you get a deed it describes your property and that you own an indivisible portion of the commons which is to say you can’t sell that, but you are an owner of the commons.”
Donlyn's book "The Sea Ranch": Buy here
Everyday Modernism in the California Landscape
Opening remarks provided by Kyle Normandin, senior project specialist, Getty Conservation Institute.
Presented by Donlyn Lyndon, FAIA, Eva Li Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Urban Design, UC Berkeley. Donlyn focused on long-term conservation strategies for the Sea Ranch development and the ways architects Lawrence Halprin and Garret Eckbo each directed their designs through the integration of landscape and setting.
Presented in conjunction with Getty Conservation Institute's Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative, which seeks to advance the practice of conserving twentieth-century heritage.
More on Getty's Conservation of Modern Architecture Initiative