For the last 7 years I’ve marvelled through every page of the The Sea Ranch, a book first shown to me by João Gomes da Silva, that served us both well in defining some of guiding principles for Barrocal. The architecture, the landscaping and the framework for the community stood apart from everything else I’d seen before, and has succeeded for the last 50 years. As it almost seemed too good to be true, I was recently very excited to fly to northern California and meet Richard Whitaker, one of The Sea Ranch’s founding architects, who was kind enough to offer me a personal tour. And from what I saw, it’s clear that The Sea Ranch really is the best of what architecture can provide to a stunning natural setting, and will surely continue to be one of the most interesting communities around for decades to come.