Warnecke's Influence at Asilomar
In 1956, the State of California acquired Asilomar as part of the State Park system. Park officials, under the direction of architect John Carl Warnecke, initiated a 20-year, $5.5 million building program, in which Warnecke ensured that his designs would complement the original buildings designed by Julia Morgan between 1913 and 1928. To that end, he used hand-split cedar shakes and local stone to match the Morgan buildings’ exteriors. Inside, he designed spaces in the colors of nature to blend with the redwood paneling, and created rooms that were sparse yet inviting, with blackboards and projector screens neatly concealed in the walls and ceiling beams.
The buildings themselves were planned in clusters of three to six buildings, carefully situated among the pines and the edges of the dunes to blend in with the landscape. Most of Warnecke’s buildings have small balconies or spacious wooden decks with views of the forest, the dunes, and the Pacific Ocean. He designed the meetings rooms in pavilion styles and likewise secured them in the natural surroundings.
The following buildings were designed and built by John Carl Warnecke:
Surf & Sand (1959). Located between Tide Inn and the volley ball courts, these two lodging buildings share a living room/meeting room that seats 35.
Corporation Yard (1959). Built on a site that formerly housed a warehouse and barn.
Crocker Dining Hall and Kitchen Remodel, and additions of Woodlands and Seascape dining rooms (1961). In December of 1960, the Monterey County Health Department shut down Crocker’s old kitchen and the dining hall. Warnecke remodeled Crocker by removing the old kitchen and side rooms and designing two new dining areas, Woodlands and Seascape. He raised the dining hall floor 27” above the original to provide a single floor level connection to the two new dining areas. The main dining room seats 480, Woodlands seats 180, and Seascape seats 160.
Sea Galaxy Complex (1964). Located just south of the Corporation Yard and opposite Surf & Sand is this 5-building complex consisting of Windward, Shores, and Cypress lodges and Nautilus and Triton meeting rooms. Nautilus seats 100, and Triton 50.
Housekeeping (1965). Built next to the swimming pool on the site of the old tennis courts which were demolished this same year.
Longviews (1966). These three lodging buildings, Longviews North, Middle, and South, are located in an area that was the site of tenthouses 1913. In 1935, the canvas walls of the tenthouses were converted to wood, and they were renamed Longhouses. Three of them were replaced by Warnecke’s Longviews.
View Crescent Complex (1968). In the early YWCA days of Asilomar, from about 1913 to 1920, this area was encircled by tenthouses. View Crescent is composed of three two-building lodges: Spindrift, Breakers, and Whitecaps; and four meeting rooms: Dolphin, Curlew, Sanderling, and Marlin. Each meeting room seats 35.
