This story is part of our annual look at the state of American design. This year, we’re highlighting work that shines through an acrimonious moment—and makes the case for optimism.

If you strolled down Santa Cruz’s Fair Avenue toward the ocean a decade ago, you would pass rows of single-family homes, a church, and a sight that would stop you in your tracks. On an overgrown field spanning four contiguous lots stood a collection of cryptic brick structures ornamented with abalone shells and arcane symbols. More or less abandoned since the mid-1960s, it was a strange sight, even for a town celebrated for being unconventional.

Known informally as the Yogi Temple, the Watts Towers of Santa Cruz, and the Court of Mysteries, it was created by an eccentric Pennsylvania brick mason named Kenneth Kitchen and his stonemason brother, Raymond. Over the years, the oddball property—which included a dwelling, a well house, a gate, and two obelisks—changed hands and fell into neglect, but that only seemed to amplify the lore surrounding it. Legend has it that the triangular plaque adorned with a sun, moon, and stars atop the entry gate could prophesy an impending apocalypse and that the siblings built the structures under the cloak of night in a nod to the occult—though it may have been because they both had day jobs. Reflecting fears stoked by World War II, the well was said to contain a device designed to interfere with transmissions from enemy submarines, and the obelisks were rumored to conceal antennae.

According to architect and preservationist Nancy Goldenberg, who conducted a historical survey of the site in 2016, Kenneth bought the property around 1935 and began constructing the central building, while keeping goats on the northern part of the lot. The well house followed, along with the obelisks, the mysterious gate, and a concrete fence with brick-and-abalone posts that ran along the street.

Goldenberg says it’s impossible to know what inspired the Kitchens. “The property speaks to the history of Santa Cruz and says something about a time when there was an interest in the occult and theosophy,” she explains. Kenneth left Santa Cruz in 1953, and the property sat vacant until it was purchased in 1962 by a Greek Orthodox priest. His tenure was brief, and the site deteriorated. Graffiti marred the main structure, and the well house was nearly destroyed by vandals. Relief arrived in 2016, when a San Francisco couple bought the place for $1.58 million and undertook a major restoration of the ruins while building a new Spanish-style home and ADU on the southern side of the property.

Taylor Darling, cofounder of Santa Cruz Green Builders, served as contractor—a bit of serendipity, as he remembers riding his bike past the site when he was a student at UC Santa Cruz. “It was a decrepit, strange, eerie place then, but I thought it would be amazing if someone could buy it and make it new again.”

He and his wife, Claire, got the chance to complete the process when the owners put the entire property on the market and asked the couple if they were interested in buying the northernmost parcel, vacant except for the taller of the two obelisks. “There are no empty lots in Santa Cruz anymore, and being a green builder, we weren’t going to tear down a home that needed to be remodeled,” says Claire. “This was too good to pass up.”

Seeking a contemporary family home for themselves and their two children that would complement both the idiosyncratic historic structures and the new house next door, the couple reached out to designers Brian Friel and Meghan Dorrian of Santa Cruz–based Young America Creative. Taking into account the site and the location, they started assembling what Friel calls a “coastal California vernacular of natural materials” for a two-story home built around a garden. “Rather than clean, smooth stucco, we introduced brick, and since Taylor and Claire wanted wood siding, we picked redwood board and batten that felt appropriate for California and true to the local vernacular,” Friel says.

“The house needed to embrace the obelisk and not fight or ignore it, so it was fun to have that as a design constraint.”
—Brian Friel, designer

During planning, the designers also had to integrate the obelisk, which, remarkably, withstood the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which devastated downtown Santa Cruz. “We always say that site parameters create an interesting project, but we don’t typically have a thirty-foot obelisk as a site parameter,” says Friel. “It has abalone shells, mixed materials, and very intricate detailing,” adds Dorrian. “We wanted it to shine.”

With help from Goldenberg and a few tweaks to the design, their plan was approved by the City of Santa Cruz Historic Preservation Commission. The resulting home includes several details that Taylor, as the builder, is especially proud of, such as an energy-recovery ventilator that reduces energy consumption and keeps the interior air fresh and the fact that it’s all-electric with radiant-heated floors. “In winter, the heat kicks on for two hours in the morning and never again for the whole day,” he says. “It was fun to have my own home to experiment on.”

Reminders of Kenneth Kitchen’s own passion for experimentation are still visible to the Darlings every day—whether it’s the view of the obelisk from their bedroom windows or seeing the entrance gate and “temple” from their kitchen. “The amount of inspiration and motivation this guy had to build everything by hand is just incredible,” Taylor says. “You could never rebuild something like that. It’s too weird—and yet it somehow works.”

Local Legend

ca 1935: Kenneth Kitchen purchases four contiguous lots on Fair Avenue, constructs a one-story dwelling for himself, and establishes a goat farm.
ca 1936–1946: With his brother Raymond, Kenneth constructs a temple-like main structure, a well, a well house, two obelisks, and an entrance gate, plus a fence around the property.
ca 1952: The one-story dwelling is demolished.
1953: Kenneth leaves Santa Cruz, and the property sits vacant.
1962: Elias G. Karim, pastor of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in San Francisco, purchases the property, converts it into the St. Elias Orthodox Chapel & Shrine, landscapes the grounds, and plants palm trees.
1964-1988: The property is vacated, and the city gives it historical landmark status in 1976. It’s listed in 1988, but it goes unsold.
2016: Douglas Harr and Artina Morton purchase the property for $1.58 million and begin restoring it two years later with Taylor Darling and Santa Cruz Green Builders as contractor. They add a 3,300-square-foot Spanish-style house, an ADU, and a pool.
2018: The well house, which had been severely damaged by vandals and intruders, is demolished due to liability concerns.
2021: Taylor and Claire Darling purchase the vacant northernmost parcel and begin planning a home with Young America Creative. The adjacent property is sold for $3.9 million.
2023: The Darlings complete their home while preserving an existing obelisk in the front yard.

Project Credits:

Designer: Young America Creative / @youngamericacreative

Builder: Santa Cruz Green Builders / @santacruzgreenbuilders_

Structural Engineering: Andrew Radovan P.E.

Landscape Design: Aly Rae Hanson

Cabinetry: Bellmont Cabinets / Santa Cruz Green Builders

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