Chris

The Sea Ranch: an upper class attempt at a commune.

The Sea Ranch is now its own city, built off of an unincorporated plot of land 100 miles north of San Francisco. The Sea Ranch is a 10 mile stretch of coastline, with homes dotted throughout. The homes were not designed to be single family, instead pockets of communes that create one large reliant community.

The land was purchased by investors in 1960, and quickly Lawrence Halprin was hired to begin plotting what would become the community. The first houses went up in the late 60’s after meeting some resistance by California legislature. The land was meant to be parkland, but now it was going to be made into a private community. Eventually The Sea Ranch residents won out in 1972, and California gave up the fight. (Was the money used to buy the land pooled from the people who wanted to live in the commune? Or did a few more wealthy people pay for it for everyone? -Cate)

Unlike many other communes, the Sea Ranch never failed. Today, over 1,000 people still reside throughout the community. Today Bay Area ‘free spirits’ who have accumulated enough wealth throughout their lifetime have come to reside at Sea Ranch. In the 1960’s it was no different, the average hippie could never live there, only the most prosperous few could actually afford the amenities, and expense of the so-called commune.

The Sea Ranch is strikingly beautiful.

The houses sit on cliffs overlooking the gorgeous Pacific Ocean. Fog hangs overhead most of the year, but on the days it doesn’t The Sea Ranch is one of the most beautiful locations in the world, with sun reflecting through the massive windowless houses, and the night holding no light besides the moon and stars.

The Sea Ranch is a commune of the 1960’s but it certainly does not resemble the stereotypical image of the Summer of Love type of commune filled with nudity or chartered upon religious beliefs as many others are built upon. The Sea Ranch followed the same methodology as basically every other commune in that the goal of the community was to live off the land more efficiently. There were–of course–some images that would reflect the stereotypical commune idea, such as writing workshops on the beach, and the daily dances, but for the most part it was just ecological friendly life. There was no farming or rampant nudity, just normal, ecologically friendly life.

Lawrence Halprin was the head landscape architect put on the project (the fact there was even a landscape architect or an architect at all reflects the difference in this commune from countless others), and he worked tirelessly to incorporate the natural beauty of the coast into a livable community. Lawrence’s ideology was nature first, but he was overruled by some of the heavy investors who bought the land that wanted a more comfortable lifestyle. The investors wanted the land to be treated as if it was a resort, while Halprin–being the San Francisco hippie that he was–really wanted the community to be more focused on sustainability and being ecologically friendly.

The project eventually landed somewhere in the middle. The houses look like mini-resort bungalows, but also can survive off of the grid. Lawrence interspersed land and nature in a method that resembled a swirl, meaning he could build the houses without disrupting the cycle of nature living around him.

Lawrence’s vision, though, was also shaped by his wife, Anna Halprin–and her passion for dancing– helped to inspire the community. Anna was a renowned dancer and idealist in San Francisco, thus some of the community was built off of an idea of dance as a way of healing. Art was always going to be a major part of Sea Ranch, but with Halprin’s help dance became the main vehicle for expression.There was a massive stage built that came to house iconic images of the ranch as being a “hippie” idealist location.

           

Ultimately, The Sea Ranch has managed to achieve and sustain the idea of a utopia. The society is vaguely communist in that they live together, and (formerly) survive off of the land without outside resources. The society they have created is one of peace and love, but the reason it was able to thrive and survive for so long is what has always separated this commune: the ready availability of funding. (This is very well done. Beautifully written and the pictures are great complements. -Cate)

 

Sources:

https://experiments.californiahistoricalsociety.org/

http://experiments.californiahistoricalsociety.org/tag/anna-halprin/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Ranch,_California

https://www.tsra.org/