Barbara Stauffacher Solomon was not only a pioneer in the male-dominated midcentury design world, she was also an innovator, essentially inventing the field of supergraphics. In a new interview—shot in Solomon’s stunning San Francisco home—the 89-year-old recounts the history of her most famous project, the Sea Ranch, where her colorful environmental graphics humanised and publicised a legendary work of architecture.
Solomon was referred to the Sea Ranch’s developers by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. At first, she was hired only to create the Sea Ranch’s logo and brochure. In fact, as she reveals in the interview, the now-iconic supergraphics were one of the last elements she designed for the development.
The architects (Charles Moore, Donlyn Lyndon, William Turnbull, and Richard Whitaker) had gone way over budget designing the Sea Ranch’s swim and tennis club and they needed a cost-effective signage system. Enter Solomon’s bold, Helvetica-heavy solution, achieved in just a handful of days with just a few coats of paint. The project was published in Life magazine, and the rest was history, says Solomon. “Everybody copied it.”
Robin Dyke, the architect behind Riverside Cabins (in which the Cedar Cabin is located) took inspiration from the structure of Sea Ranch, which were tucked into the cypress trees with rooflines having a slope ratio believed to provide the best way for wind to pass over the buildings and cause the least disturbance. This was just one of a long list of architectural and landscape decisions, from modest home sizes to native plantings, that put the Sea Ranch way ahead of its time in environmental sensitivity. With it’s values of affordable living with modern architecture and a shared commitment to living lightly on the land.
Each block located in Riverside cabins used to have a unified pop of primary colour on the front door and balcony in reference to Sea Ranch and supergraphics. Sadly the colours have been pained over by the owners committee, who clearly missed the genius reference!