A two-part oral history mining the origins and controversies surrounding California?s most bucolic planned community?and forecasting its future
Welcome back to Curbed?s oral history of the Sea Ranch, the influential Northern California coastal development that?s experiencing something of a second coming. If you?ve made it through all 8,000 words of Part 1, congrats! There?s more (and Moore) ahead.
In Part 2, we take a look at how the look and feel of the Sea Ranch spread far and wide, thanks in great part to one enterprising publicist. We dig into the complexity surrounding the Sea Ranchers? beef with an environmental watchdog group formed in the 1970s, and look at how the community?s internal building regulations hope to encourage careful development. Perhaps most importantly, we challenge those who know the Sea Ranch best to imagine its future?by unpacking the constraints getting in the way of experimentation, and the opportunities those constraints hold for the next generation of designers. ?Kelsey Keith
Marketing the Sea Ranch ideals
In which the Sea Ranch tours the world on a wave of architectural press?a feat engineered by a maverick PR woman who contributed greatly to its legend.
Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher: The missing person in all of this is Marion Conrad. She was really key, and sadly passed away really young, not long after the Sea Ranch. All of her papers are destroyed or gone or missing.
Alison Isenberg: Marion Conrad would have appreciat...