Drawing by Lawrence Halprin
MORE ABOUT TAKING PART 2023
“The original premise of the Sea Ranch was a community that believed in the utopian ideal of melding life with the land. In that utopian ideal, design was a remarkable tool for integrating architecture with the land, and not dominating it. This ideal also included community as an essential part of a vital democratic lifestyle. The Sea Ranch adventure began in the early 1960’s, and though much has changed, it has always attracted community members who want to be creatively involved in charting its course.”
WHAT IS TAKING PART 2023?
“The original premise of the Sea Ranch was a community that believed in the utopian ideal of melding life with the land. In that utopian ideal, design was a remarkable tool for integrating architecture with the land, and not dominating it. This ideal also included community as an essential part of a vital democratic lifestyle. The Sea Ranch adventure began in the early 1960’s, and though much has changed, it has always attracted community members who want to be creatively involved in charting its course.”
WHEN IS TAKING PART 2023?
The Taking Part 2023 workshops will be held during October 21st - 22nd. The first day we’ll tour various locations to understand the totality of The Sea Ranch, its history, and residents alike. The second day participants will share their impressions, articulate observations, and concerns to develop ideas towards building a stronger community. Our goal is to inspire all Sea Ranchers to take part in this exploration. We hope you’ll come and share your ideas!
THOUGHTS FROM OUR COMMUNITY MANAGER
“In the spirit of ‘walking the talk,’ and to encourage all to participate, here are some of the subjects I hope we explore this year in Taking Part”
Resilience. Given the storms that battered The Sea Ranch during the first month of my tenure, I sincerely hope this year’s Taking Part will address climate resiliency. Beyond that, I also hope we can expand the conversation to also include economic and social resilience - to reflect the “Diversity” section of our Sea Ranch Principles - specifically, diversity of people, Take Part in “Taking Part” Continued on next page. Lawrence Halprin's Sea Ranch Principles from the Taking Part Workshop, 1993. The Sea Ranch Association Community Manager Take Part in “Taking Part” income, profession, and interests.
Adapting While Adhering to Sea Ranch Principles. Along with resilience comes change. While that can perhaps be hard, our tradition is that this is not something to be feared. The Sea Ranch began as a thought experiment. As Halprin wrote in his summary of the 2003 Taking Part workshop:
This is not a finished work of art and change will continue here. I am comfortable with this reality. I have overheard Sea Ranchers say that in an emergency they would rather be here than anywhere else they can imagine. It is because the Sea Ranch has attracted a community of talented, positive thinking problem solvers. Our awareness, our ability to self-analyze issues and patterns, and our tradition of gathering to work through our conflicts together will serve us well.
Multigenerational Participation. I truly hope everyone will participate in this year’s Taking Part, representing every generation of Sea Ranch membership: Those who knew our history first; more recent arrivals who have embraced our principles; and the next generation, our children who I hope will inherit and continue the legacy of experimentation to explore how humans and nature can thrive together in harmony.
A key first step in Taking Part is sharing how each of us can participate. Attend workshops? Submit drawings or photographs of what is special to you about The Sea Ranch? Sing a song of meaning? Contribute a piece of writing that explores important ideas or expressions? Please propose your ideas. Share them with friends and family. Send them across TSRA communication channels. Email them to info@takingpart2023.org. Write them in a letter. Take photos. Draw pictures. Contribute in any way most comfortable and relevant for you. Take part!
~ MENKA SETHI, The Sea Ranch Community Manager, June 2023 Bulletin Excerpt
SEA RANCH CONCEPT Lawrence Halprin
THOUGHTS FROM OUR LODGE MANAGER
Dear Sea Ranchers,
Last weekend I participated in the pre-workshop for the upcoming Taking Part Workshop in October. I wrote the introduction below to start off my conversation with Menka Sethi, Community Manager, about the roles The Lodge and The Sea Ranch Association play in our community and want to share it with those of you who did not have the opportunity to attend.
I started in my position just a little over 2 years ago, joining The Lodge Team on the 4th of July weekend in 2021. The opportunity intrigued me because I believe in Larry Halprin’s vision of “living lightly on the land” and because the vision of our ownership families, who want to be stewards of this land, who believe in sustainability and who want to preserve The Sea Ranch for future generations supports that vision. Lastly, just like many other families, mine created memories here for over 30 years, and I wanted to be a part of making this possible for future generations.
The Lodge and The Links were always in Larry’s plans and can be seen on the original locational score. Our goal from the beginning was to create a community hub at The Lodge. I went about achieving this through programming and offering the community activities, just like Larry mentioned in The Sea Ranch Diary of an Idea. The Lodge programming not only honors The Sea Ranch spirit, but also its history, all while focusing on the future and making us good neighbors to the north, south and the east. I did not come up with all the great ideas to build our community hub on my own. I was very fortunate to have some very wonderful Sea Ranchers, Donlyn & Alice, Maynard & Lu, David Hillmer, Linda Kennedy & Hall Kelley, Kirsten Segura, Marti Campbell, the women of the Women’s Club at The Links and many, many others, who helped me begin to understand what this community is all about and what a successful community hub would need to offer.
~ KRISTINA JETTON, The Sea Ranch Lodge Manager, August 2023 Newsletter
JULY PRE-WORKSHOP
THE ARCHIVES SUBCOMMITTEE
Harry Lindstrom, Chair
George Calys
Marti Campbell
Kristina Jetton
Deloras Jones
Christine Kreyling
Donlyn Lyndon
Lu Lyndon
Doug Paul
Scott Smith
Wayne Smith
Marilyn Thompson