Preserving Paradise Near Carmel-By-The-Sea

Winding up the road to Tom and Alayna Gray’s sprawling home at Santa Lucia Preserve, you’d swear you were stumbling upon a hidden Mexican ranch from another era. The thick adobe walls, weathered wooden beams, and red tile roofs evoke an era when Mexican land grants stretched across California’s coastal mountains and cattle grazed these same golden hills. Preserving the pristine character of this land is exactly what Gray was after when the then- 46-year-old developer transformed 20,000 acres of this idyllic California landscape just outside Carmel-by-the-Sea into America’s most innovative conservation community. The home he built here was deliberately designed to honor the natural and cultural legacy of this still-wild land.

"We wanted to use reclaimed wood in the house, and we were searching around for it,” Gray says, gesturing toward the massive cedar beams that anchor his great room. “We ended up buying an entire 19th century warehouse in Canada made of first-growth cedar. That’s just amazing stuff. This whole house is all that lumber.”

The home tells a story within a story. Gray and his late partner, Peter Stocker, didn’t just create Santa Lucia Preserve, they invented a new model for luxury living, one where conservation comes first and development follows nature’s rules. Gray’s residence embodies this philosophy and is designed to look as if it evolved organically over generations rather than being built all at once in 2004.

The Gray home features large reclaimed lumber accents, following Gray’s conservation philosophy: “We serve nature. Nature doesn’t serve us." 

That architectural philosophy shapes every structure throughout the Preserve. The golf clubhouse combines three distinct periods that include Spanish colonial adobe, Monterey colonial with its distinctive second-story balconies, and arts and crafts elements that create what Gray calls “a composition of the three styles of indigenous California architecture.” The sports center and equestrian facilities follow similar principles, resembling working ranch buildings that have evolved naturally over time. At the heart of it all stands the historic Hacienda, which serves as inspiration and anchor for the community’s authentic architectural vision.

The historic Hacienda at the Santa Lucia Preserve is much more than an architectural anchor — it also serves as the heart of the community’s social life. The community’s “Ranch Club,” the Hacienda is the Preserve’s central venue, offering guest rooms for visitors, a restaurant for dining, and spacious gathering areas that foster connection among residents and guests.

The architectural crown jewel of the Preserve, the Hacienda was built in 1927 by George Gordon Moore, the polo-playing playboy rumored to have inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby. This nearly century-old adobe structure hasn’t changed much — besides the addition of heating and air, updated utilities, and modern appliances — and today serves as the community’s Ranch Club; its gracious adobe-walled rooms host a variety of special events, from wine tastings to weddings.

“The Hacienda has had only three owners: George Gordon Moore, then the Oppenheimer family, and now the Preserve,” Gray says. “We are trying to keep the footprint intact.” The building’s authentic Spanish colonial architecture provides the template for new construction throughout the Preserve. Original features like hand-painted tiles, exposed wooden beams, and intimate courtyards inspire contemporary interpretations that honor the past while serving modern needs.

Faux History With Real Purpose

“Our own house has the same sort of story as the clubhouse,” Gray says. “We built the house all at once, but we tried to make it look like it had been built in pieces over time.” Working alongside Hart Howerton, Gray and his wife Alayna created their own floor plan that maximized the 8,000 square feet of space. The final design creates the illusion of a ranch compound that grew organically, with different sections appearing to represent different eras of construction. Different sections of the house feature different roof tiles to suggest various building periods but all hewing to historical authenticity. The great room’s fireplace incorporates what appears to be an ancient cooking hearth, complete with small alcoves where coals would be shoveled to keep pots warm.

Gray’s home represents more than personal taste. It reflects the preserve’s commitment to what he calls “legacy architecture.” Every structure must reflect the cultural heritage of the land while respecting its natural beauty. “Every place comes from a culture, and there’s an architecture associated with that culture, just like there’s food and mythology and music and art,” he says. “That’s what culture is all about. And that’s what the Preserve is all about.”

The homes at the preserve feel authentic and are designed to complement rather than compete with the dramatic landscape.

A Home Filled With Adventures — And Visitors

The interior design of their home reflects the Grays’ decades of international business and travel. “Our collection represents our travels in the Americas and the art of Native Americans,” Alayna explains, gesturing toward treasures collected from around the world. The couple’s many visits to Guatemala are represented throughout the house. Ancient artifacts and textiles from Central America share space with beaded Native American artifacts. The art filled home’s unique layout accommodates not just museum-worthy pieces but also multigenerational living.

"When your kids become adults, they want their own privacy,” Tom says. And they built accordingly. The main house contains just one bedroom, while guest accommodations are separate, with two bedrooms tucked within a detached cottage and another in the tower that tops the structure. The tower bedroom offers commanding views across the preserve’s rolling hills, while the guest cottage provides privacy for visiting family members who regularly fill the house during holidays and celebrations.

 The Preserve boasts a Tom Fazio-designed championship golf course that has earned recognition from Golf Digest and Golfweek.

Preservation With Perks

Ninety percent of Santa Lucia Preserve remains permanently protected under conservation easements, while the community’s architectural guidelines ensure that all 300 homesites blend seamlessly into the landscape, with strict rules about materials, colors, and building heights. “You want to protect the beauty that surrounds you,” Gray says. “You want to protect the wildlife. You want to live with nature. That’s why people settle here.”

Ensconced amid the untouched acreage, the Preserve boasts a Tom Fazio designed championship golf course that has earned recognition from Golf Digest and Golfweek. When Fazio first flew over the Santa Lucia Mountains in a helicopter, surveying the 365 acres designated for the course, he was given detailed maps of every archaeological and ecological feature. “This is as good as it gets,” Fazio told Gray. “You don’t really need me — the course and spectacular golf holes are already here.”

The equestrian program at the preserve's Ranch Club has a worldclass facility and team; the club also has a string of trail horses available for members to ride.

The resulting course, opened in 2000, demonstrates how world-class golf can coexist with environmental stewardship. Fazio moved almost no earth here, so perfect was the routing established by course designers Mike Poellot and Sandy Tatum. Instead of imposing a design on the landscape, them course flows naturally through towering oaks and rolling savannas, around wetlands, and across seasonal streams, creating what feels like a centuries-old addition to the ranch.

The Gray home’s weathered adobe walls and terra-cotta tiles evoke the Spanish land grant era when cattle ranches stretched across California’s coastal mountains.

Making a Home in Nature

The Grays’ home also demonstrates how luxury and environmental stewardship can enhance each other. Rather than removing existing oak trees, the house was sited to sit among them. Native materials sourced from sustainable forests connect interior spaces to the surrounding landscape. Every design decision considers both human comfort and ecological impact.

“We serve nature. Nature doesn’t serve us,” Gray says, quoting 18th-century naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. “Had we used that notion for the last 300 years, man probably wouldn’t have the problems we have today.” This philosophy has created a true preserve where residents share the belief that luxury isn’t about maximizing square footage or flaunting wealth but rather about protecting something irreplaceable for future generations. As wilderness becomes more scarce, Gray’s vision demonstrates there’s a development model that successfully combines conservation and community.

Residents at Santa Lucia Preserve own their full parcel of land but can only build within a designated envelope, ensuring that even luxury amenities like pools and guest barns don't encroach upon the surrounding wilderness.

Standing in the Grays’ great room, surrounded by ancient timbers under hand-hewn beams, looking out through massive windows at oak- and redwood-studded hills where deer graze, mountain lions hide, and hawks soar, it’s clear why this experiment works. Here, among the mountainous landscapes of coastal California, architecture serves a higher purpose, creating homes that honor both human heritage and natural habitat, and ensuring that this untouched place will remain wild and beautiful for generations.

Photography by Paul Dyer, Allen Kennedy, Joe Fletcher, and Hart Howerton.