Table of Contentss

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Dinosaur

Wright Brothers

Gettysburg

Pertified Forest

Rocky Mountain

Cecil Doty

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix I

Appendix II

Appendix III

Appendix IV

Mission 66 Visitor Centers Chapter 6

Characteristics of a Doty Design (continued)

Style and Materials

Both in terms of theory and practice, modern architecture involved new materials and new uses for old materials. Steel and concrete were not modern materials per se, but, when deliberately exposed and exploited, they became part of the modernist aesthetic. Steel frames and concrete shells allowed lobbies to become open areas unobscured by load-bearing walls. The most significant adaptation made by Park Service architects, after compensating for view terraces and observation areas, was in the treatment of materials. Doty and his colleagues always mingled traditional materials, like stone and wood, with steel, concrete, and glass. This mixture of old and new followed the Park Service's tradition of "harmonizing" with the landscape, sometimes in a deliberate attempt to establish continuity between existing rustic structures and modern additions. If this conservative combination of materials did not stretch the boundaries of the modern style, it did result in some distinctive park buildings.

The Zion Visitor Center featured both canyon-colored brick and masonry and tapered steel columns encircling entire walls of glass. At Sunset Crater, sawn shakes and a water table of volcanic rock clashed with the glue lam framing, crinkled roof, and tapered columns. The visitor center at Tonto National Monument in Arizona, for which Doty prepared both preliminary and working drawings, incorporated laminated beams and glass paneled walls in an upper deck. One end of the east elevation was stone veneer over concrete, the other stucco on concrete blocks. Death Valley featured porcelain metal louvers on the east elevation, the same Lemlar brand used in the office wing at Gettysburg, and Organ Pipe Cactus included concrete block screens similar to those popularized by Edward Durell Stone. Lassen Volcanic was rustic in outline, with its pitched roof suitable for alpine climates, but the roof was metal and supported by laminated beams. The Navajo Visitor Center in Arizona was a flat-roofed rectangular building with a front facade of native stone and glass and a sign of "rough-sawn" lettering. Park Service architects did not simply build modern structures; they incorporated many of the most blatant features of modernism, including the tapered column, aluminum-framed window wall, and concrete block screen. In most cases, they felt obliged to temper such choices with traditional building materials.

Although many Mission 66 visitor centers provide clues to their origins, usually in exterior masonry patterns, window frames, and roofs, the visitor center at Canyon de Chelly might have been built yesterday. The functional brick structure offers no obvious indication of a date. On the inside, however, period museum exhibits suggest its Mission 66 vintage. In this case, limited means resulted in a building that not only appears timeless, but has actually become more appropriate for the surrounding landscape over the years. The road to the building takes the visitor through the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation. Buildings on the reservation range from public housing projects, modular and mobile homes, to homemade cabins and traditional hogans. The utilitarian visitor center is more appropriate here than anything alluding to ancient civilizations, especially since Native Americans still farm land on the valley floor.

If the Canyon de Chelly Visitor Center did not boast dramatic modernist columns or glass walls, its very simplicity demonstrated Doty's increasing comfort with the modern style as the Mission 66 program entered its final years. In preliminary (unbuilt) projects for Cabrillo National Monument (1963-1964) in San Diego, and Cedar Breaks National Monument (1965) in Utah, Doty designed modernist facilities with expansive glass-walled viewing decks overlooking the sites. The buildings resemble ocean liners, at least in elevation. The only ornamentation was provided by clay grilles at Cabrillo and the pattern of concrete block and aluminum sun baffles on the facade of Cedar Breaks. An observation deck at Cabrillo featured a band of windows surrounded by concrete, like a control tower, while the Cedar Breaks observation area was floor-to-ceiling windows that alternated between sash and pivot. Although neither building demonstrates major changes in terms of plan or circulation, these later visitor centers show a significant adjustment of aesthetics. The modernist style is no longer covered with a "rustic" veneer or tempered by natural wood details. At Cabrillo, the "mission tile color" of the grilles appears to be one of the few concessions, while Cedar Breaks includes a "large rock" adjacent the square metal columns marking the entrance.

Doty used the compact, minimalist aesthetic for some of his later designs, but others boasted dramatic cylindrical forms fashioned of poured and cast concrete. Among such projects were proposals for visitor centers at Glen Canyon Dam, Mesa Verde, and Natural Bridges, all of which incorporated cylindrical elements into their plans. The Glen Canyon building, designed in 1963-1964, consisted of a rectangular wing with offices and visitor services attached to a cylindrical "observation and display" space and exhibit area. In elevation, the cylindrical observation room was emphasized by an overhanging flat roof, like a plate, with a central skylight housed in a much smaller cylinder. The visitor spaces at Natural Bridges (1964) were arranged within an oval. Concrete arches over the cylindrical area add to the feeling of free-flowing space. Masonry veneer, a split-block wall section, and wood trim were included in the decor, but the dramatic concrete shell was hardly influenced by such details. Just a few months later, in August, Doty employed the cylindrical form in an exhibit space placed within a roughly triangular lobby and audio-visual area. Offices and concessions were contained within a rectangular wing perpendicular to the lobby. The cylindrical form of the exhibit hall was mirrored in the round shape of the front terrace. The use of cylindrical forms has no apparent relationship to the site conditions; in fact, previous designs might have used the shape to greater advantage for panoramic views in many locations. It's likely that Doty had become increasingly interested in stretching the possibilities of steel and concrete construction. By 1964 Park Service Modern had become a style, and Doty was free to take more risks in its execution.

CONTINUED

 

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