A couple takes on a coastal classic It?s the stuff home fantasies are made of: A newly married couple goes in search of a house they can afford and finds a midcentury cabin created by one of their architectural heroes, perched on an ocean bluff.
It may sound like an elevator pitch for a movie, but it?s all true?and it happened to architectural designer Chad DeWitt and James Cook.
The couple lives in Oakland, California, but they found their dream home 113 miles north in The Sea Ranch, a design enclave like no other. It came about in the most ordinary of ways. ?It?s the classic Bay Area scenario?we wanted a toehold in the real estate market, but we were finding it very expensive,? says DeWitt, principal of Framestudio. ?We started looking outside of our area.?
Chad DeWitt and James Cook purchased and remodeled this Sea Ranch home designed by Joseph Esherick in 1968. It?s built with three levels totaling 684 square feet.

DeWitt?s mind immediately turned to The Sea Ranch, an area he?d long admired. When Cook saw it, he, too, became an instant convert.
If you are of a design mind, it?s easy to see why. The short story of Sea Ranch is that it?s a planned community along a short stretch of the Sonoma Coast. The long story is one of architectural and environmental significance.
In 1962, architect Al Boeke came up with the idea of a development that would sit lightly on and integrate beautifully with this dramatic, remote part of Sonoma County. It was ...