Sea Ranch Chapel
While I was at Salt Point, I visited the Sea Ranch Chapel just north of there. The chapel’s a fantastic building designed by San Diego architect James T. Hubbell, commisioned by two sea Ranch residents who wanted to create a ‘nondenominational sanctuary for prayer, meditation, and spiritual renewal.’ I love the form and the blending of materials.
The design was inspired by the drawings of a local artist and is said to be based on winged forms. It also has a bit of shell motif going, though it’s of course abstract enough to offer a variety of interpretations. Personally, I think it resembles a brugmansia flower.
The Hubbell website says the supervisor on the project had experience as a boat builder, which makes a lot of sense; the framing looks like it’s for a boat, and the finished building looks somewhat like a sea vessel sitting on a cradle of rock. The moss rock (aka Sonoma fieldstone) is actually a facade over a cinder block wall, but the batter makes it look structural.
The section and the construction photo are from the chapel’s website, which also has a nice aerial photo of the building.
The interior is as striking as the exterior, with a flagstone floor, stained glass windows, and lots of beautiful woodwork. The windows and the wood made the building feel warm, even though the sky still was gray with its coastal-morning haze.
It’s all very compelling and a steady flow of people visited while I was there, drawn off the highway to investigate. You don’t really see many buildings that combine rock and wood and glass and metal in such a unique way. Really well done.
This entry was posted on Sunday, June 19th, 2011 at 6:59 am and is filed under stone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 19th, 2011 at 8:44 am
Love that place! We almost missed it on our trip north last November. Had the place to ourselves after a a couple people finished up smoking a joint inside.
June 20th, 2011 at 8:29 pm
In the 80s I pored through piles of architecture books, thinking I might want to shift gears into architecture, and some of the images I remember most clearly are those of the early Sea Ranch structures by Charles Moore and his partners, and the startlingly natural landscaping that oozes a strong sense of place. The chapel in some ways tries a lot harder than everything around, but it still manages to fit in. I can definitely see the brugmansia form you mention–or maybe it’s a psychedelic datura?
July 10th, 2011 at 12:02 am
lovely building.
July 18th, 2011 at 7:29 am
Thanks for posting on this very unique and lovely building. It looks so organic from the outside its hard to believe its all man made.
January 5th, 2017 at 8:27 pm
Love how you saw the shape of the Chapel in the form of the brugmansia flower. You’re spot with that!