As the COVID-19 pandemic roiled the world in 2020, Catherine Kwong succumbed to the siren call of The Sea Ranch, the quietly radical planned community that sprang up in the 1960s along 10 miles of glorious Northern California coastline. The landmark development—conceived by a group of pioneering Bay Area architects and planners as a progressive haven centered on harmony with the natural environment—provided the perfect pastoral escape hatch for the San Francisco–based interior designer and her family. “I’ve always been obsessed with The Sea Ranch from an architectural point of view. It casts such a spell—letting nature envelop you as you’re cradled in this incredible landscape right by the ocean,” Kwong says.
The designer and her husband, Brian, settled on a home built in 1972 by architect John Haag, who worked for years as an associate in the office of Joseph Esherick, one of the community’s founding visionaries. “The house had been carefully tended to over time, so it was in great condition. It encapsulated the ethos of the 1970s era at The Sea Ranch,” Kwong recalls, describing the home’s archetypal cedar construction, folded planes, sloping rooflines, and generous windows framing views through the forest and out to the Pacific. “We wanted to preserve the integrity of the original design so we tried not to do too much,” she adds.
Kwong’s ministrations to the interior included refurbishing portions of the existing millwork, adding a window seat in the kitchen, and renovating the kitchen and baths in a way that feels sympathetic to the modesty of the original plans. One of her more noticeable changes was replacing the carpet in the kitchen with ceramic tiles laid out in a gingham motif. “There are little pattern and color moves throughout, but I wanted to keep everything pretty quiet,” Kwong says of her limited interventions. A few pedigreed decorative pieces—among them a Roger Capron tiled cocktail table, Alvar Aalto dining chairs, and a vintage Tommi Parzinger candelabra perched on a Michael van Beuren cabinet—pepper the restrained mix.
Life at The Sea Ranch is predictably bucolic, frequently focused on divertissements for the couple’s young children, Miles and Juliet. “The kids have their favorite hikes and their favorite beaches. We make plans based on the tides,” Kwong notes. “There are plenty of activities, like foraging and silk scarf acrobatics. There’s even a class in biological illustration. It’s the most Sea Ranch thing you can think of.”
