Collection by Elle
Ranch
With its sloped Douglas fir ceiling, expansive glass, and elm built-ins crafted by Wolf Melian, the upstairs study resembles a Crestwood Hills classic. Case Study sofas that double as guest beds meet the client’s request for convertible space. The rug from Amadi Carpets, pillows sewn from vintage Swedish fabric, and painting by Sylvan Lionni inject red into the earthy palette.
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.
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.
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.”
The owners shared Turnbull Griffin Haesloop’s dedication to green design, and agreed to modifications—like solar panels and passive heating and cooling elements—to earn the property LEED Platinum certification. The living room’s oversized fan is by Big Ass Fans. Ultra-Tec created the cable system on the stairs and guardrail.