Big Ideas

“I wanted to get rigorous. Let’s limit the number of building materials.” —Gabriel Ramirez, resident

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.

the lot but rather had to hug its edges. By all accounts, that challenge proved beneficial by forcing the architectural duo to create two structures, a modest main house and a guesthouse, rather than one big one. This was fine by Ramirez and his partner, Sarah Mason Williams, a graphic designer. In true Sea Ranch fashion, they wanted the giant juniper at the center of their property to remain the site’s dominant feature.

For the couple, following 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.”

No wonder Sea Ranch stalwarts have embraced it. Lyndon—coauthor of The Sea Ranch, the definitive volume on the development and its architecture (a new edition was released in time for its 50th anniversary in 2014)—says, “It doesn’t look like other Sea Ranch houses on the surface, but it’s deeply rooted in the place.”

Indeed, the interiors recall both Moore’s loft, with its raised bedroom, and Esherick’s houses, with their stepped interiors. In Ramirez’s version, the living room, dining area, and kitchen are closest to the bluff. A few steps lead up to a guest room and study, and a few more lead to the master bedroom. The only enclosed rooms are the bathrooms, which project out in ipe boxes from one side of the house, and Ramirez’s office, tucked away below the master bedroom. The spaces flow into each other under an angled ceiling made of richly hued plywood—which, Sheine says, makes the interiors “warm, warm, warm.” On the sidewalls, everything above the datum line is covered in the same plywood; everything below is concrete, with

Boi sconces, which David Weeks designed for Ralph Pucci, illuminate the bedroom (left). The area rug is by Stephanie Odegard. The living room (opposite) is furnished with vintage items, including a leather-and-chrome chair by Suekichi Uchida and a stacking stool by Florence Knoll.