Location: Sea Ranch (Sonoma County)     Site Area: 1 Acre | 2448 Sq. Ft.     Completion Year: 2008 

 

Ocean Pines Lodge is a contemporary interpretation of the historic Sea Ranch intent and style as originated by Charles Moore, FAIA, William Turnbull, FAIA, Joseph Esherick, FAIA, Lawrence Halprin, FASLA, and others.  This home was designed for the family of the architect, a graduate of the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design who had studied with Esherick and Halprin.  The design passed through the approval process of the Sea Ranch Design Review Committee, which was led by architect Lisa Dundee and included George Homsey, FAIA, Donlyn Lyndon, FAIA, Marvin Buchanan, FAIA, Laura Hartman, FAIA, and Richard Whittaker, AIA, at the time the design was approved for construction.

 

In the spirit of the original "Binker Barns" designed by Turnbull, the house resembles a small barn with porches and a shed-roofed extension. Inside this simple, economical, and deceptively small shell is a complex interior based on a module of 12'Wx12'Lx9'H, with exposed Douglas fir structural posts, beams, floors, stairways,  and ceilings throughout.  The barn shell is expressed inside with a natural finish of cedar planks, the interior partitions are finished in white sheetrock, as if they have been inserted into a pre-existing structure. Whereas the Binker Barns had a solid core around which the spaces wrapped, Ocean Pines Lodge is centered around a three-story-high open space with interior bridges crossing above and interior windows looking out from the upstairs bedrooms.  As is the style at Sea Ranch, the house is "settled" into the sloping meadow landscape such that there are walk-out open spaces on all sides, extending the open interior space out into patios, porches, and decks in all directions.

 

This house design is a personal expression of the architect in a number of ways: collaboration, as the design was developed and improved through a series of design reviews with family members, friends, and of course the Sea Ranch Design Review Committee; openness, as the house opens into the landscape and is centered around an open space which connects all the rooms on all three levels; transparency, as the interior and exterior windows are aligned to allow views through the house in all directions and the main level opens to the landscape with broad expanses of glass;  directness, as the carefully-detailed structure by Peter Yu, SE, is exposed throughout the house; and playfulness, as the open bridges, interior windows, and elevated entry area suggest a theater of informal family life.