Sunset Magazine Campus, the 鈥淟aboratory of Western Living,鈥� Threatened with Demolition
The seven-acre Modern corporate campus once home to Sunset magazine is under threat of demolition. The site captures the essence of “California Modernism” in both its physical design and cultural significance.
History
Founded in 1898 as a marketing tool for the Southern Pacific Railroad to lure tourists west, Sunset magazine was purchased in 1929 by Laurence and Ruth Lane. In their first issue, the Lanes shared their mission for the publication: “Advancing with modern trends, life in the West offers the utmost in living. Charming and comfortable homes are the rule. Tastefully designed and furnished, they also abound in new convenience ideas, making housekeeping less of a job and more of a joy . . . the new Sunset will be vitalized by a constant stream of new ideas in the art of living. It is keyed to the prime interests of life in the West – indoors and out.”
A sampling of Sunset magazine covers from over the decades.
The first Lane cover, February 1929. From original oil painting by Maurice Logan, collection of Bill and Jean Lane.
Credit:
Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives
In 1950, after outgrowing their office in San Francisco, the Lanes purchased the Menlo Park property and enlisted May and Church to design the new Sunset headquarters. Construction was completed in 1951, and the building opened to the public in 1952.
An advertisement invites Sunset readers to visit the campus.
Credit:
Sunset magazine
Credited with creating the California ranch home, Clifford May practiced throughout southern California, designing more than a thousand custom homes, with an additional 18,000 tract homes based on his designs. The office building at 80 Willow Road carries the hallmarks of his California Ranch designs—particularly seen in the low-sloped roof atop low-profile exterior walls and in the floor-to-ceiling windows and central courtyard intended to blur the line between indoors and outdoors—along with details of earlier styles adapted to suit a modern palate: the exposed rafter tails of a Craftsman home and stucco- and brick-clad chimneys reminiscent of Mission style and adobe structures.
Courtyard of Sunset magazine campus
Credit:
Ernest Braun
A view of the spacious lobby on a vintage postcard.
The office building at 80 Willow Road carries the hallmarks of May's California Ranch designs—particularly seen in the low-sloped roof atop low-profile exterior walls and in the floor-to-ceiling windows and central courtyard intended to blur the line between indoors and outdoors—along with details of earlier styles adapted to suit a modern palate: the exposed rafter tails of a Craftsman home and stucco- and brick-clad chimneys reminiscent of Mission style and adobe structures.
Credit:
Ernest Braun
Landscape architect Thomas Church opened his San Francisco office in 1932 and remained in practice there until 1977. Known as creator of the “modern California garden,” he designed the (1948) in Sonoma, CA; portions of the campuses of Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Cruz; and the (1956) in Warren, MI, which was the first major independent project by Eero Saarinen after leaving his father Eliel’s firm. Church was part of a group of collaborators gathered by Saarinen to consult on the Warren Technical Center—a group that also included Alexander Girard, Harry Bertoia, and Florence Knoll.
At 80 Willow Road, the Church-designed landscape included 3,000 square feet of test gardens for the magazine, while May’s design for a house-like office building held
