#searanch

Sea Ranch, California.

Lawrence Halprin’s radical experiment that merges architecture and ecology — opened in 1965 on a wild stretch of Sonoma coast 100 miles north of San Francisco, it was most remarkable for what it was not. Covenant restrictions for the planned community explicitly forbade stereotypical signs of suburbia: no lawns, no mailboxes or street lamps, no flower beds or garages — certainly no garden gnomes or pink plastic flamingos.The Sea Ranch’s planting guide for owners specifies only native or naturalized vegetation with the caveat to “avoid prettiness — maximize rugged character” and, for flora, no “conspicuous blooming performance.” The only standout element should be the landscape: steep cliffs bordering the ocean, wind-swept meadows formerly grazed by sheep, rows of slanted Monterey cypresses, and dense forest across the two-lane Route 1 that bisects the property. (1)

To understand Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s amazing career and designs, you could look at the influence of Swiss designers like Armin Hofmann, under whom Solomon studied in Basel during the 1950s. Or you could see in her playfulness the ideas of the Dadaists, whom she knew through her husband, Frank Stauffacher. However, when asked what artists, architects, or designers she liked, she responded, “I like white 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper, white walls, the ocean and the sky.”

Solomon is best known for her “supergraphics” at Sea Ranch, although, as a recent exhibition at the Palm Springs Art Museum reminds us, her career is larger than even these large designs. But since we at Studio AHEAD are intrigued with California and all the ways it has inspired artists, we want to take another look at those influential graphics at Sea Ranch a community built along a 10-mile stretch of the Sonoma County coast in Northern California in the 1960′s. 

It’s easy to see why her first job as a designer remains her most famous. The enormity of the graphics feels interactive in the same way a Rothko painting feels interactive—the colors swallow you up. They are an architecture on top of an architecture: their geometric shapes and vibrancy give illusions of depth and structure on the flat surface of Sea Ranch’s walls. They are bold. They are fun. You don’t have to think too much to enjoy them.

They are also a last-minute addition. When Sea Ranch’s architects went over budget, they needed a cheap and fast way to render signs, and asked Solomon, there to merely design the ranch’s brochures and logo (inspired by the sea waves and sheep horns of the surrounding coast), to come up with a solution. A few coats of paint later, her interior graphics became as famous as Sea Ranch’s architectural outside.

Solomon’s work at Sea Ranch reminds us that great design does not need to be expensive, complicated, or planned long in advance. Sometimes all it takes is a creative person seizing an unexpected opportunity.  

Sea Ranch General Store. Archives, Lawerence Halprin Collection.

Sea Ranch Lodge. Archives, Sea Ranch Collection

Moonraker Athletic Complex Sea Ranch. Archives, William Turnbull, Jr. Collection.

Hines Residence. Archives, William Turnbull, Jr. Collection.

Rush Residence. Archives, William Turnbull, Jr. Collection.

Sea Ranch paint sample.  Archives, William Turnbull, Jr. Collection.

Graphic pool tile designs. Archives, William Turnbull, Jr. Collection.

Solomon at Sea Ranch in the 1960′s. Archives, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon.

Solomon at Sea Ranch in 2018. Archives, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon.