To the dismay of my husband and children, I actually like moving. Discovering new neighborhoods and cities, decorating a new house—for me it’s the beginning of an adventure every time. (Admittedly, I could skip packing the junk drawer.)
And now Sunset is moving to a new location. After more than 50 years in the iconic Cliff May-designed “laboratory for Western living” in Menlo Park, we’re picking up stakes and moving our editorial and business operations to Jack London Square in Oakland, California.
Though we will all miss the gorgeous campus and gardens we have called home for so long, the move is consistent with Sunset’s longtime mission to reflect our readers’ lives and aspirations. In 1951 when Sunset moved from San Francisco to the south Bay, people all over the United States were leaving cities for the wide-open suburbs. Now the trend has reversed and Westerners—young people starting careers and empty-nesters alike—are opting to live where we can walk, bike or take public transit to work and experience new restaurants, shopping and culture out our front doors. We’ve documented this migration all over the West, from Denver to Portland, Seattle to San Francisco, Phoenix to LA. And now we’re part of it.
Jack London Square offers us a gorgeous waterfront location in a newly thriving neighborhood. One floor below our offices at 55 Harrison Street will be a brand new public food market developed by the same folks who led the transformation of SF’s Ferry Building, putting us in (literally) spitting distance of the kind of food innovators we cover every month. We’ll have world-class restaurants in walking distance, plus BART and Amtrak and the ferry system. Along with a wine cellar and test kitchens in our upstairs offices, we’re hoping to create a small raised-bed garden right on the waterfront – which means thousands more people will be able to see what we are up to. And amidst all the shiny new stuff, we love that the location connects us to our history: Jack London was a regular contributor to Sunset back in the day, and the cabin-style bar that was his regular haunt will be at our doorstep. (You may find us there occasionally.).
Choosing city life doesn’t mean we’ve given up on the bucolic pleasures of the countryside. In fact, for the first time in our history we’ll have a continuous presence in two locations. In partnership with Cornerstone, a retail and event venue in Sonoma, California, we will locate our main Test Garden beds and our outdoor kitchen at the sunny gateway to wine country. Thousands of people from all over the world visit Cornerstone’s campus on the way to experience the spectacular food, wine, and sights of Napa and Sonoma counties. We’re excited to put ourselves in their path—and excited about our future.
Come visit us in Menlo Park through November of this year—our gardens are open weekdays from 8:00-4 p.m. And then come see us in our new homes.
