Our vacation rental house was designed by a famous architect – Charles Moore. He is not a household name but he was the dean of the Architecture School at Yale when I was there and has a great cult following in California. He was one of the team of designers that put together the Sea Ranch development on the Pacific Ocean in Sonoma County where we spent Christmas. The house we stayed in was typical of the shed style which is encouraged at Sea Ranch. Originally, it was a small two bedroom house but later a master bedroom wing and a guest wing were added. The exterior, like all Sea Ranch structures is wood which is either stained gray or brown or left to weather naturally. Interiors are more varied but ours was mostly unfinished pine. One of the characteristics of a Moore design is a simple shape for the building but with a complex interior with many levels and diagonal intersections of the spaces with skylights to bring in light in expected and unexpected ways.
The house was quirky, particularly the interiors with an odd kitchen and an even odder master bath with an open shower and footed tub.
The beauty of Sea Ranch is the way that buildings are integrated into the landscape. This house is carefully shaped and fits nicely into the grove of cedars formed shaped by the winds off the Pacific. Other houses take the design cues but fail to fit the landscape. Even so, the soft colors and natural landscapes make Sea Ranch very restful. Despite the density of houses, the community still seems very much cued to nature and the beautiful surroundings.
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I have a degree in architecture and though I never got licensed or practiced, I can’t help looking at architecture anywhere I go. Some of my observations have been among the more popular posts here at RCB. If you missed any of them, I have links below in case you would like to check them out- or maybe even revisit. As always, I would be interested in your comments or observations, particularly if you disagree.
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I have always been interested in architecture, even so far as getting a degree but somehow a career in architecture was not in the cards. Nothing keeps me from appraising architecture wherever I go and making a judgement. This pops up from time to time in my blog posts. From my love for Saairinen, master of mid century American architecture- a man almost forgotten these days to the would-be masters of today like Piano and Calatrava, you find posts with my two cents about their works. Then a bit of nostalgia about the wonderful Design Research stores and their headquarters in Cambridge. Finally an appreciation of billboards, really two apprecations.
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A weekend conference gave me a brief opportunity to see the Milwaukee Art Museum by Santiago Calatrava. I had seen photos of the brise soleil but had not studied the complete building or understood its purpose. Locals seem proud of the structure and and explained to me how it opens and closes to shield the interior from direct sun. The building is stunning, set against Lake Michigan. Friday during my visit, the sky was grey and the building was difficult to photograph. The brise soleil was open like seagulls landing. As I left on Sunday with the sun shining the brise soleil was folded down against the skylights. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to visit and see the difference for the interior lighting but Friday , the grand lobby was glorious.
Patriotic Nostalgia - The St. Louis Arch [/caption] This weeks nostalgia is a visit to the St. Louis Arch which was completed in 1966. The architect was Eero Saarinen, probably the preeminent...
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Design Research Store and Headquarters, Cambridge, Mass
Design Research was the store that started the concept of a modern lifestyle. There you could find well designed furniture, housewares and Merimekko fabrics to frame the contemporary life. DR was an east coast creation with the headquarters in Cambridge near Harvard Square. The closest retail chain today is Crate and Barrel which today has much of the same character but is less cutting edge. Modern design was controversial and hip in the 60’s. DR was big in California with a store in the new and fashionable Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. It even made it to Beverly Hills in the 70’s when we used to enjoy a Saturday window shopping excursion on Rodeo Drive. For whatever reason, the chain closed in the 70’s leaving a big vacuum for lovers of modern design.
When I started researching this post, I imagined that someone would have created a webpage in homage to Design Research. Nobody has. The best I can find is an article about a couple that worked at DR and continued with their own design store when DR closed. The last time we visited Sea Ranch, their store was still in Gualala.
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This weeks nostalgia is a visit to the St. Louis Arch which was completed in 1966. The architect was Eero Saarinen, probably the preeminent American architect in the mid 20th century. It is located on the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. You can ride to the top of the 630 foot high arch and look out over the vast midwest vistas. Somehow, the pictures never seem to impress. Because the arch is so big and yet so gracefully proportioned, it seems wimpy and out of scale with the office buildings nearby. Yet when you visit the site, it’s quite another experience. Each base is massive. It is also a unique experience to be at one end of the park and view the arch head on where it takes on the character of an obelisk (like the Washington Monument). Another aspect of the monument which I have never read about is the museum under the arch. It depicts various aspects of opening the west but the remarkable thing about the museum is that it is like a time capsule of the 60’s. I don’t think that the museum has been touched since it was first conceived. The layout and the exhibits have a naive simplicity and garish colors that takes me right back to college days. The only things missing are orange shag carpet and avocado appliances (but maybe I missed them).
Many of Saarinen’s buildings are forgotten or torn down (like my college dormitory) but many remain (like Dulles Airport). Perhaps his greatest building lies hidden in the overbuilt JFK Airport complex. It isn’t torn down but no one seems to know how to use it. In it’s time, the TWA terminal symbolized flying when flying was sophisticated (you used to dress up to fly). It’s sweeping curves predated the Sydney Opera House and Frank Gehry’s curvaceous museums. Flying TWA from JFK made flying sublime, so different from the cattle car experience of today. No wonder they don’t know what to do with that magnificent building.
Check out more about Saarinen and the wonderful TWA terminal, if this interests you.
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Renzo Piano's addition to the Chicago Art Institute
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Part of my peculiar perspective on things comes from the way I think. I was just reminded today while discussing a mathematical problem at work. When explaining what I was thinking I was thinking visually and three-dimensionally. My colleagues didn’t have a clue what I was trying to communicate. They wanted formulas – their way of understanding and solving the problem.
I explained that I had a formula but in my head it was a three-dimensional diagram. Then came the odd looks. Anyway we worked through the problem, created a formula and gave me some insight for a better solution to what I was doing.
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The house we stayed in was typical of the shed style which is encouraged at Sea Ranch. Originally, it was a small two bedroom house but later a master bedroom wing and a guest wing were added. The exterior, like all Sea Ranch structures is wood which is either stained gray or brown or left to weather naturally. 
Interiors are more varied but ours was mostly unfinished pine. One of the characteristics of a Moore design is a simple shape for the building but with a complex interior with many levels and diagonal intersections of the spaces with skylights to bring in light in expected and unexpected ways.
and an even odder master bath with an open shower and footed tub. 
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