The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded an $82,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). Under the Access to Historical Records: Archival Projects grant program, the Architectural Archives and the EDA will digitize approximately 650 images from collections that highlight the design development of The Sea Ranch, a breakthrough example of environmentally sensitive design.
Sea Ranch, an icon of 1960s environmentally sensitive design, is a planned community situated along 10 miles of the northern California coastline. Landscape architect Lawrence Halprin’s master plan for the site was predicated on the idea that human communities should be in harmony with the landscape. The project attracted many significant architects including Charles Moore, Joseph Esherick, William Turnbull, Claude Stoller, Robert Marquis, and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon among others
The 12-month project, Living Lightly on the Land: A Virtual Sea Ranch Design Collection, will result in an interactive virtual collection documenting the design and development of the Sea Ranch. The project will use drawings, notebooks, moving images, photographs, and project files from the Lawrence Halprin Collection in the Architectural Archives.
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