Asian Tranquility Soothes the Soul on the California Coast
article from Architectural Digest
written by Jeff Turrentine

To paraphrase Voltaire: If Carmel-by-the-Sea didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent it. Nestled at the southern tip of the Monterey Peninsula , on California's central coast, this Platonic ideal of a charming seaside village sets the standard for upscale American picturesqueness. The walkable, tree-lined streets, filled with boutiques, galleries and restaurants, radiate from a  broad boulevard that leads down a steep hill to the Pacific Ocean. From the sand, one of the most scenic and challenging golf courses in the world, Pebble Beach, is visible to the north; to the south is Point Lobos, a majestic promontory that is said to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson, who spent time there to write Treasure Island. Architecturally, however, Carmel can seem a bit confused-Mediterranean-style villas with stucco walls and red-tile roofs abut quaint Tudor-style cottages, as if the town straddled some imaginary border between the Cinque Terre and Cotswolds. Maybe it was this lack of an enforced architectural identity that freed a man named Richard Catlin to try his own thing nearly half a century ago. After living for a number of years in postwar Japan, where he had worked as a member of U.S. occupation forces to develop that nation's ravaged economy. Catlin returned home to Carmel and embarked on a very different kind of development project: the design and construction of the Tradewinds Inn, then -and now- the area's only Asian-inspired hotel.

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