Respect the land. That is the legacy of one of the most significant architect – developers of the late 20th century. Al Boeke died on November 8, 2011.
Photo: Eros Hoagland for New York Times: Utopia by the Sea
Charles Moore Home Sea Ranch: Courtesy Wondersphere
When I was in Architecture School in 1980 I had an oportunity to spend a summer at the San Francisco Art Institute, studying with other students from around the country. We were mentored by some of the most innovative architects of the late 20th century: Joseph Esherick, Donlyn Lyndon, William Turnbull, Richard Whitaker and Lawrence Halprin, the landscape architect who drafted California’s Sea Ranch master plan. Charles Moore took us to Sea Ranch where we met Al Boeke. That same summer we also met Nathaniel Owings founding partner of SOM (Skidmore Owings and Merril). We met Mr. Owings with his wife, Margaret Wentworth, at their home “The Wild Bird House” at Big Sur. It would not be for another twenty years that I would realize the impact that these extraordinary Californian’s would have on my own work. Since the mid nineties my partner Gregg Wilson and I have been designing and building homes on the California Coast.
Photo: Courtesy Los Angeles Times. Read Elaine Woo’s obituary : Al Boeke dies at 88; ‘father’ of Northern California’s Sea Ranch
Gregg keeps opening a book The Sea Ranch given to us by Jack Warner and Johanna Barnes. After we purchased their home they moved north to Sea Ranch. I’m beginning to think Gregg wants to move there because he’s been checking out the length of the runway at the tiny Sea Ranch airstrip! The book, by the way, is great and is written by Donlyn Lyndon, one of our mentors during that 1980 summer in San Francisco.
See Also: New York Times Travel: A Seaside Experiment great slide show & Utopia by the Sea
