Great Basin National Park Artist in Residence Project

Edward R. Ford Architect Darwin Lambert Artist-Writer in Residence Program A Design Proposal for a Multipurpose Building at Great Basin National Park April 2015

The work that follows was done in 2014 during my term as an artist in Residence at Great Basin National Park. As I am an architect and writer and not a painter, photographer, poet or musician, and the art I did there was architectural design, but, like other artists, I drew inspiration from what was around me. Certainly the natural features but also the buildings. The buildings, their uses, their programs, their sites and the entire idea of their existence was my own invention. Thus this work was not commissioned by the Park Service nor does it represent Park Service architectural policy. In fact one of its purposes is to challenge aspects of those polices.

Building in the Great Basin If you visit the National Park Service website under the category History: Park Rustic Architecture, you will find this: This little noticed movement in American architecture was a natural outgrowth of a new romanticism about nature, about our country’s western frontiers...The conservation ethic slowly took hold in this atmosphere of romanticism. Part of this ethic fostered the development of a unique architectural style. Perhaps for the first time in the history of American architecture, a building became an accessory to nature... Early pioneer and regional building techniques were revived because it was thought that a structure employing native materials blended best with the environment...No [other] single government agency has to date been responsible for such a revolutionary break in architectural form.

Fremont Archaeological Site 1220-1295

It is a common belief (and a misconception) the Park Rustic architecture is an original invention that grew out of the National Parks of the west, The reality is that there was complexity and varieties of external influences in the development of this style, as the park service history acknowledges, but it also emphasizes the connection of building to land, to context.

The history of Park architecture in general, however seems to have little relevance to the architectural past or the architectural future of Great Basin specifically. In comparison to the larger western parks there has never been much architecture at Great Basin or Lehman Caves, and if one intends to learn from the indigenous architecture of the region it is by no means easy to say what the indigenous architecture of the region is. It is not because of an absence of precedent for while there are not a great number of buildings, there are a great number of types.

Where do these forms originate? Is there something about them that is indigenous and that thus ought to be imitated? We can identify them as series of different types or “typologies” to use an architectural term, and try to understand why these types are so different.

Paiute Native American

The first typology, and the obvious one is simple historical development. Each culture that occupied the Snake valley brought with it its own style and traditions of building. The Fremont people worked in a tradition of unbaked earth brick as shown of the ruins near Baker. The early pioneers and ranchers brought their Anglo traditions of log cabins and wood stud framing to a desert where neither material was readily available, at least at lower elevations. Many examples remain-the log construction of the old baker schoolhouse now in Ely. The mining era cultures brought in others types such as the wood and steel of Hampton Creek garnet mines. With the arrival of the National park and National Forest came their architectural traditions, as in the rustic log construction of the 1928 Rhodes cabin adjacent to the Lehman caves and the white clapboard Forest Service cabins near Baker. And finally Twentieth century industrialized utilitarian, the Vinyl and plastic of the Border Inn and the Butler building of the Western Desert School. Along the way there have been some revivals as in the new park buildings imitating the old forms with different materials- the updated rusticity of the Visitor center with vague references to California Modernism. Most of these building cultures are not indigenous, with the exception of perhaps Fremont People and some only faintly.

A second take on the variety of types is site, or more precisely elevation and what comes with it- availability of certain materials. There is little usable wood in the desert. As you move up it become more plentiful. And it becomes more difficult to bring in both material and tools.

Charcoal Ovens Wade, 1876

The mining town Osceola at elevation 7188 built in 1900 is mostly framed lumber with a few stone walled buildings. Lumber was brought from Hendrie’s sawmill in the North Snake range. The Forest Service buildings just north of Baker, located at an elevation of about 5400 and relatively accessible as sites in the area go is built of standard semi industrialized house building materials-wood studs and clapboards- obviously brought to the site from some distance. The cabins at Johnson Lake, built in the first decades of the twentieth century- although also the residue of a mining operation are 3600 feet higher at elevation of 10000 and today are accessible only by foot. They are built of Bristlecone pine logs a type of construction will inefficient I its use of wood, requires fare similar technology saw an axes, as no transport slice the logs were present on site or nearby. There are numerous exceptions to this typology. Yet there are log cabins at lower elevations as well such as the Bancroft store a 1900 log cabin now the lectrolux café. Baker school was log cabin, and there are several in the town today.

A third series of types is based on function. The forms and types of building construction vary because their functional needs vary. The beehive shaped charcoal ovens at Ward, built in 1876, have thick walls to absorb heat and a cone like inner space to precisely control the fire creating the charcoal. The light trailers of modern Baker and the surrounding area are a prefabricated, easily transported building type for an area with little available raw material and specialized labor.

Charcoal Ovens Wade, 1876

A fourth typology is based technological limitations of the culture that produced the building. The simplest is the oldest, the unbaked earth brick tradition of the ruin of the Fremont People, as seen at the Baker Archaeological site. The physical culture of the Paiute Shoshone was based almost entirely on reeds. Boats, clothes, decoys, houses were all made from reeds-all were impermanent made with the simplest of tools and survive only in the tradition of their making. The Johnson Creek log Cabins were built using only hand tools-saws and axes, manual labor and on site materials, but far more substantial materials. The charcoal ovens at Ward, built in 1876, were built by Italian Masons and exhibit a level of precision in their stonework rare in the region. European stone tradition is also present in the tower of Stokes Castle in Austin. Each type of construction has a different level of engagement of craftsman and material, an engagement highly dependent on tools. Each has a variation in the distance between the hand and the material each has a definite tool. The effect of modern technology is felt in transportation as much as anything else. Build in the region was changed by the coming of the railroad the nearest stop was Eureka 100 miles away.

Stone Ruin in Osceola 1872-1890

The buildings of the town of Baker exhibits numerous hybrids of these technologies and cultures, fusions of logs and galvanized steel siding, clapboards and adobe, vinyl siding and stucco.

The architectural historian Kenneth Frampton has written the true relation of building to place is based less on region than on site. Thus while it is important the a structure built in the Snake valley need to be using available material and technologically, far more important is the actual site both technically and aesthetically.

In the end material decision were made based on context as much as anything else. The bare logs look best in the dense green forest. The cinnamon brown of the bark logs disappears in the thinner forested areas. The metal studs and wood clapboards, clear or painted white, seem at home in the quilt of materials that is Baker.

Rhodes Cabin 1928

The Concept and The Building There is no building at Great Basin readily suitable to house an Artist in Residence or their studio but in the hierarchy of Park needs it is obviously not a top priority. Thus these designs, all variations on the same building, can house an artist in residence and an exhibition space for their use but is also designed to serve a variety of other possible uses, either simultaneously or intermittently- film or video presentation, ranger lead discussion groups, library, meeting room. The proposal is not to build five buildings but to investigate the possibility of where one building could be best located.

Rhodes Cabin 1928

This study established its own typologies by studying different sites in different conditions of water, micro-climate, forestation, elevation, temperature variations.

Sustainability, particularly in terms of minimizing energy consumption, is a primary criteria, and passive solar considerations play a critical role in the design. While factors betweens site can vary considerably, those involving the sun do not. Thus the north south orientation is always the same or very similar. The north side is always the north side the east always the east. But while the North/South orientation of the building is always the same, what side is perceived as front, the back and the direction of entry may change with each site.

Each of the five designs has an almost identical floor plan but a highly flexible one. It is composed of two large spaces. One faces south to take advantage of solar heating possibilities. It is provided with shade and insulation internal screen to prevent heat loss at night or times of extreme cold.

The other smaller room faces north, opening onto a courtyard shaded by the building allowing for activities that move between inside and out. The space may function together or independently and are linked by a bar containing bathrooms and kitchen that can be used by both or either.

Each design contains the elements that is universal to all and others that are specific to a certain site. What is specific to each site in addition to the potential use, is the materials.

Rainwater collection They are not necessarily portable or prefabricated although they could be, but they are prototypical. And they are certainly not meant to be permanent.

While the plans are the same the structural and finish materials change with each site.

Sites The buildings are all located on land that had cleared built on or disturbed. Little foliage is lost. Water runoff is not increased. Few trees are lost. No new paving is added; all make use of existing parking.

Houses in Baker Date Unknown

Log and Galvanized steel siding building in Baker.

Border Inn 1986

Baker Community Church 2011

Four Sites The area just north of The Forest Service buildings in Baker Strawberry Creek Campground Lower Lehman Campground Upper Lehman Campground The west portion of the town of Baker near Great Basin Visitors Center

The concept begins with a generic building because passive heating and cooling are primary criteria its orientation in relation to the sun-north, south, east, west is always the same or similar.

Its spaces are deliberately varied but not specific to any particular building use- not a house, an office a museum, but cam be all of those things at different times.

It is composed of two large spaces. One faces south to take advantage of solar heating possibilities. It is provided with shade and insulating internal screens to prevent heat loss at night or in times of extreme cold. Because the north south orientation is always the same or very similar.

The north side is always the north side the east always the east. The other smaller room faces north, opening onto a courtyard shaded by the building allowing for activities that move between inside and out.

The small space facing the courtyard can be very inwardly focused and private. The large space faces the world outside with distant views and connections to the landscape while allowing visual connection to the public outside. Transitional Spaces-benches the run along the edges and corners of the space (Inglenooks in traditional terminology) Provide ares for smaller groups in more intimate spaces oinked to the landscape beyond.

Generic Floor Plan 1/8”=1”-0”

The plan of all the designs consists of one large room facing South and one small facing North each with a separate entrance connected by a utility core of bathroom and kitchen. These may be shared or used exclusively by either of the two spaces. Either space may be used for presentations, exhibits, conferences or lectures or as residence and/or studio for artists or scholars.

1 Large Room 2 Small Room 3 Main Entry 4 Secondary Entry 5 Bathroom 6 Kitchen 7 Fireplace 8 Inglenook Seating 9 Bedroom /Storeroom

A B

Overhead Glazed Garage Type Rolling Doors Glazed Wall for Solar Heating with external awnings and internal insulating shades C Cisterns D Awnings

Section Looking North

Section Looking South

Construction Sequence

Foundations A concrete slab is placed under the large room for heat storage. An elevated wood deck is placed below the smaller room.

Glazed Walls Two rolling overhead glazed doors allow the small room to join with the adjacent courtyard. A large sough facing fixed aluminum and glass wall of the large space works in conjunction with the concrete slab of the large room to provide passive heating.

Walls The primary structure is bearing walls formed of 8� round logs. The walls proved shelter from both sun and weather depending on location.

Curtain walls As series of light wood and metal non-bearing walls project beyond the bearing walls to create intermediate spaces between interior and exterior. One near the fireplace in the large room, one with a table in the small, and one that allows light but not view into the bathroom.

Frames Roofs in the large room are supported by wood and steel L frames, braced with log buttresses. A steel beam and bar joists support the roof of the small room. Both are covered with structural metal deck.

Roofs Galvanized metal roofing with insulation below is sloped to valleys that flow to cisterns to collect rainwater.

Section at Skylight over Fixed Seating adjacent to Fireplace

Section through North Wall and Solar Glazing Opening the overhead rolling glass doors (It operates similar to a garage door) allows the small room and the courtyard to function as one large space in good weather.

Section at Small Room with Overhead Door Closed

Section at Small Room with Overhead Door Open

Site Investigation Having determined a prototype plan, an investigation was made at five different site to determine suitability and find other potential uses. Some site are easily accessible; some are remote, Some are in the desert and some in the Forrest. All are on previously disturbed land no virgin parkland isl sot and no paving is added to minimize ground and groundwater disturbance. The plan is alway the same th north south orientation is the same regardless o site.

The material both structural and non structural do change.

Building Sites Investigated 1 Strawberry Creek Campground 2 Lower Lehman Creek Campground 2 Upper Lehman Creek Campground 4 Site in Town of Baker 5 Forest Service Buildings Area

The floor plan is the same at each of the five sites but the materials change. The design is shown (left to Right) at Strawberry Creek Campground, Upper Lehman Creek Campground, Lower Lehman Creek Campground, and in the town of Baker.

There will be different functions for the same generic room at different sites. Views of the large room in use for photographic exhibitions, library, film/presentation and artist in residence.

The small room may also be used for the same types of activities as the large, but with smaller audiences. Views showing the Small Room in use at different sites for (left to right) painting exhibition, photographer’s studio and, small lecture hall.

Plans of the Building at Investigated Sites 1 Strawberry Creek Campground 2 Lower Lehman Creek Campground 2 Upper Lehman Creek Campground 4 Town site in Baker 5 Forest Service Buildings Area

Strawberry Creek Campground Site Elevation 7400

Site Plan 1”=20”

The first site is at Strawberry Creek Campground, located on Strawberry Creek Road about 3.5 miles west of its intersection with Highway 50, just inside the park boundary. Being a fairly remote location, the building is shown in use as an artist in residence loft and exhibit space, but it could also serve for exhibits and presentations related to this section of the park.

Location Plan 1”=100”

Strawberry Creek Campground Floor Plan 1/8”=1”-0”

The large room is shown set up for a photographic exhibition using easels. Because of the dual entry the gallery may work independently of the artist in residence space. The small room is set up for an artist in residence, in this case a photographer and functions a both a work and living room. The structural walls are square solid logs, the thiner screen walls are galvanized metal deck faced with wood on the interior.

1 Large Room 2 Small Room 3 Main Entry 4 Secondary Entry 5 Bathroom 6 Kitchen 7 Fireplace 8 Inglenook Seating 9 Bedroom /Storeroom

10 11

Easels for Exhibition Bed, Table and Photo Equipment

A B

C D

Overhead Rolling Doors Glazed Wall for Solar Heating External awnings and internal insulating shades Cisterns Awnings

View Looking South from Strawberry Creek Road

View of Large Room set up for a Photographic Exhibition

View of Small Room set up for an Artist in Residence (Photographer)

Building at an Alternate Location at Strawberry Creek Campground

Lower Lehman Creek Campground Site Elevation 7300

Site Plan 1”=20”

Location Plan 1”=100”

The site is located on an existing campsite at the center of the campground loop road.

Less parking is available here than at Upper Lehman Creek Campground and thus at this site the building houses an artist in residence. The residence is shown in the larger space and the exhibit space in the small.

Lower Lehman Creek Campground Floor Plan 1/8”=1”-0”

The Large room is a set up for an artist in residence, in this case a painter. The small room is shown set up for a painting exhibition with easels. The material of the structural walls is logs with the bark striped off. The thinner curtain walls are galvanized corrugated steel. The bathroom and kitchen are placed so that they may be used by either facility.

1 Large Room 2 Small Room 3 Main Entry 4 Secondary Entry 5 Bathroom 6 Kitchen 7 Fireplace 8 Inglenook Seating 9 Bedroom /Storeroom

10 Easels 11 Artist Work Area 12 Bed

A B

C D

Overhead Rolling Doors Glazed Wall for Solar Heating With external awnings and Internal insulating shades Cisterns Awnings

View from North

View of Large Room set up for an Artist (Painter) in Residence

Small Room set up for a Painting Exhibition

Building at an Alternate Location at Lower Lehman Creek Campground

Upper Lehman Creek Campground Site Elevation 7752

Site Plan 1”=20”

Location Plan 1”=100”

The site is located at the Eastern end of the Campground Loop Road near an existing parking lot. This makes this location suitable for activities with larger audiences.

Upper Lehman Creek Campground Floor Plan 1/8”=1”-0”

The Large room is shown set up for a lecture or film. The Small room is a set up for an artist in residence, in this case a painter, for both studio and residence. The structural material is logs with the bark left on. The finish material is clear finished pine clapboards.

1 Large Room 2 Small Room 3 Main Entry 4 Secondary Entry 5 Bathroom 6 Kitchen 7 Fireplace 8 Inglenook Seating 9 Bedroom /Storeroom

10 Screen and Seats 11 Bed Table and Photo Equipment

A Overhead Rolling Doors B Glazed Wall for Solar Heating

With external awnings and

Internal insulating shades C Cisterns D Awnings

View from North

View of Large Room set up for Film or Presentation

Large Room without Folding Seats

Large Room without Folding Seats

Small Room set up for an Artist in Residence (Photographer)

Small Room set up for an Artist in Residence (Photographer)

Building at Alternate Location at Upper Lehman Creek Campground

Building at Alternate Location at Upper Lehman Creek Campground

Forest Service Buildings Site near Baker Elevation 5400

Site Plan 1”=20”

The site is just north of the historic Forest Service buildings at the northern edge of town just off Highway 487. Some of the walls of the new building are faced with white clapboards to forge a link with the older buildings.

Location Plan 1”=100”

Forrest Service Buildings Site near Baker Floor Plan 1/8”=1”-0”

The Large room is shown set up for a lecture or film. The Small room is a set up for an artist in residence, in this case a painter.

The structural material is steel studs finished on the exterior with clapboards. The finish material is clear finished pine clapboards on the South, white painted pine clapboards on the North and in places, galvanized corrugated steel.

1 Large Room 2 Small Room 3 Main Entry 4 Secondary Entry 5 Bathroom 6 Kitchen 7 Fireplace 8 Inglenook Seating 9 Bedroom /Storeroom

10 11

Bookshelves and Tables Folding Chairs for Small Presentation

A B

C D

Overhead Rolling Doors Glazed Wall for Solar Heating with external awnings and internal insulating shades Cisterns Awnings

View Looking East from Highway 555

View Looking North from Forest Service Buildings

View Looking East toward Fireplace

Small Room set up for Presentation

Town of Baker Site Elevation 5317

Site Plan 1”=20”

The site is located just south of the National Park Visitor’s Center in Baker. It houses a library and/or archive for the public and Park Service.

Location Plan 1”=100”

Baker Town Site Floor Plan 1/8”=1”-0”

The Large room is shown set up for use as a library or reference area. The Small room is a set up for a ranger presentation. The structural material is heavy gauge structural steel studs, a much lighter material that the other more remote buildings. Curtain walls are clear finished pine clapboards and galvanized corrugated steel.

1 Large Room 2 Small Room 3 Main Entry 4 Secondary Entry 5 Bathroom 6 Kitchen 7 Fireplace 8 Inglenook Seating 9 Bedroom /Storeroom

10 Bookcases and Tables 11 Folding Chairs for Small Presentation

A B C D

Overhead Rolling Doors Glazed Wall for Solar Heating With external awnings and internal Insulating shades Cisterns Awnings

View Looking North from Route 488

View of Large Room set up for Library or Research Center

Small Room set up for Presentation