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- Bjarke at The Sea Ranch, part two
Bjarke at The Sea Ranch, part two
A reader slipped me a copy of BIG’s pitch deck. Let’s dive in!
Christopher Hawthorne
September 01, 2026
The roof of the proposed spa building—illustrated with renderings that seem to be auditioning for an Aman Resorts ad campaign—peels away to offer direct ocean views from the pool
Welcome to a special midweek Punch List—and welcome to all of our new subscribers!
Friday’s post, breaking the odd-bedfellows news that BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group has been tapped to design an extension to the Sea Ranch lodge, which serves as a gateway of sorts to the Northern California architectural mecca, brought a wave of new readers. Not surprisingly, people have strong feelings—trending mostly though not exclusively negative—about the lodge owners’ decision to hire BIG.
After all, since its founding in 2005 the firm has cultivated a kind of chronically-online bravado decidedly at odds with the Sea Ranch ethos of sophisticated isolation and building lightly on the land—or, as the development’s design guidelines put it, avoiding “grand gestures” in favor of the “subtle nuances of fitting in.” For all the spirit of design innovation that marked the early years of the enclave and carries on, if to a lesser extent, today—and it’s crucial to keep this history in mind in evaluating the BIG proposal—it’s tough to imagine Larry Halprin, Joe Esherick, or any of the other Sea Ranch OGs endorsing the choice with much enthusiasm.
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