Norman Millar and Judith Sheine designed the built-ins in the living-dining area, which were made from vertical-grain Douglas fir. Vintage Dutch industrial chairs are arranged around a black walnut dining table that, like the madrone coffee table, is by Urban Hardwoods.
At Sea Ranch, a half-century-old enclave of rugged modernist houses on the Northern California coast, a new home captures the spirit of its surroundings. The client, a couple, were guided by the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. Lovers of Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, the architects made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house "was very crisp and clean," he says. "This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi." Together, the Cor-Ten steel and board-form concrete give the exterior a weathered look.
The living room is furnished with vintage items, including a leather-and-chrome chair by Suekichi Uchida and a stacking stool by Florence Knoll.
After buying a site overlooking an inlet called Smuggler’s Cove, Gabriel Ramirez asked two architects—Norman Millar, dean of the Woodbury School of Architecture, and Judith Sheine, head of the architecture department at the University of Oregon—to design the house. Boi sconces, which David Weeks designed for Ralph Pucci, illuminate the bedroom in this Sea Ranch residence.
A new addition to Sea Ranch’s enclave of utopian homes, this structure (and the separate guesthouse seen here) clad in rough concrete and Cor-ten steel seamlessly blends in with its half-a-century-old California neighbors. Designed by the dean of the Woodbury School of Architecture and the head of the University of Oregon’s architecture department, its spaces flow into one another underneath an angled plywood ceiling and illuminate built-in furniture crafted from vertical-grain Douglas fir.
The guesthouse has similar built-ins and is outfitted with a reproduction rotating sconce by Serge Mouille and rugs by Stephanie Odegard.
For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”
Sea Ranch post and beam by Donlyn Lyndon, FAIA from 2004
Enchanted redwood forest The Sea Ranch
Sea Ranch 1968 Turnbull Binker Barn for sale