The long-held dream started to become reality for the University of California’s Sedgwick Reserve when the J.E. and Lillian Tipton Foundation recently gifted the reserve with a generous $1.4 million to cover construction of its central gathering place, the first of several buildings proposed in its long-range master plan.
The Sedgwick Reserve, a 5,896-acre protected natural area located in Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley and administered by UC Santa Barbara, has been available since 1997 for teaching, research, and public service activities. Reserve Director Michael P. Williams describes the Tipton Foundation’s significant contribution of his reserve’s keystone building as “the critical first step towards realizing the collective vision of both the surrounding community and the University of California.� In honor of its benefactors, the building will be designated the Tipton Meeting House.
The Tipton Meeting House will host more than 6,000 visitors each year, offering a formal classroom area for university classes, research meetings, public workshops, and K-12 outreach programs. The meeting house will also feature a spacious front porch and two smaller rooms – one intended to hold the reserve’s natural history collection and the other designed as a workshop area. The facility will be located prominently at the entrance of the reserve village.
“To be able to make a gift to the Sedgwick Reserve is truly a blessing,� a spokesperson for the J.E. and Lillian Tipton Foundation explained, “for we know this gift will have an enduring impact on teaching about and preserving nature.�
The vision of the Sedgwick Reserve’s long-range master plan blends the character of the historic, 150-year-old Sedgwick Ranch with a modern UC research and public education facility. To retain the original “feel� of the Sedgwick Ranch, which was named for Francis Minturn “Duke� Sedgwick and his wife, Alice de Forest Sedgwick, who acquired the property in 1952, the architecture of the Tipton Meeting House will be designed in traditional California ranch style, an aesthetic expression reflected throughout the entire Sedgwick village.
All new construction at the Sedgwick Reserve will follow sustainable and “green� design principles and, as such, will serve as a design model on the central coast of California. Use of recycled materials and energy efficiency will be emphasized. Heating and cooling of structures will incorporate passive, as well as active, systems and will be environmentally monitored. Construction features will be highlighted with displays and signage. In keeping with this sustainable design approach, the Tipton Meeting House will offer both enclosed winter space (created using roll-down, wooden doors) and shaded, open summer space for additional activities.
These planned improvements will enhance the beauty of the Sedgwick Reserve and significantly improve the educational, research, and cultural opportunities for all reserve users, including those drawn from the surrounding community. Gifts, such as this one from the J.E. and Lillian Tipton Foundation, are essential to the reserve realizing its long-range vision, since University contributions cover general maintenance only and do not extend to capital improvements.
The Sedgwick Reserve is part of the UC Natural Reserve System, a collection of 34 protected natural areas incorporating 130,000+ acres throughout the state of California, the largest university-operated system of its kind in the world.
Systemwide Director Alexander Glazer summarized the significance of the Sedgwick Reserve and the Tipton Foundation’s gift to this site: “The Sedgwick Reserve typifies all that is best about the Natural Reserve System. It attracts and rewards a large and diverse community of users from talented scientists to landscape painters, from graduate students to schoolchildren. The J.E. and Lillian Tipton Foundation gift will provide not only a facility essential to the reserve’s future, but also an inspiration for others.�
Media Contacts:
Jerry Booth 510-987-0142 jerry.booth@ucop.edu
Michael Williams, Director, Sedgwick Reserve, 805-686-1941, m_willia@lifesci.ucsb.edu