The Sea Ranch

The Sea Ranch was developed by Joseph Esherick and a small group of Bay Area architects in the 1960s. A beacon of Modernism on the Northern California coast, it was envisioned as a progressive, inclusive community guided by the principles of good design, economy of space, and harmony with the natural environment.

Esherick’s Hedgerow Houses of the 1960’s served as the model for development of The Sea Ranch. His last design for this sensitive landscape, completed in 1997, the Schneider House, illustrates the progressive continuity of EHDD’s work. Its contemporary interpretation of the Northern California vernacular is characteristic, as is the masterful, elegantly understated detailing. As Donlyn Lyndon writes in The Sea Ranch (which features the house on its cover), it is “peppered with places to inhabit—bays, decks, niches, windows of obvious purpose…” Its central courtyard frames sheltered views of Black Point and creates spaces distinctly suited to various seasons and times of day. Esherick’s work is featured in the 2018 SF MoMA exhibition, The Sea Ranch: Architecture, Environment, and Idealism.