Architects of the National Park Service are the architects and landscape architects who were employed by the National Park Service (NPS) starting in 1918 to design buildings, structures, roads, trails and other features in the United States National Parks. Many of their works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a number have also been designated as National Historic Landmarks.
The National Park Service was established in 1916, and Charles Punchard, Jr. became its first landscape architect in July 1918. Punchard died in 1920 and was replaced by his assistant, Daniel Ray Hull. In 1922, Hull hired Thomas Chalmers Vint as a draftsman. Vint became the head of the Landscape Architectural Division after Hull retired in 1927. Vint remained with the NPS until he retired in 1961 and is credited with directing and shaping landscape planning and development at the NPS. Vint also significantly expanded the design group's staffing in the late 1920s and 1930s, starting in 1928 with Merel S. Sager. The NPS Branch of Plans and Designs was organized in 1933. Vint was appointed as the first chief architect, with Charles E. Peterson in charge of the Eastern Division and William G. Carnes in charge of the Western Division. Carnes replaced Vint as the Chief Landscape Architect, and in 1956, Sager succeeded Carnes in that position. [1]
Other significant architects and landscape architects who were employed by NPS include Herbert Maier, John Wosky, Harold G. Fowler, Cecil J. Doty, Lyle E. Bennett, A. Paul Brown, Mark Daniels, Ernest A. Davidson, Herbert Kreinkemp, Harry Langley, and Ken Saunders. [1] [2] [3]
Much of the work of the NPS architects is in a "rustic" style that has become known as "National Park Service rustic" architecture. [2]
One of the distinctive features of architecture of the National Park Service is the blending of traditional architecture and landscape architecture. Vint and others experimented with use of stone and logs to construct buildings in a natural way, following example of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Vint also provided the first master plan for many Park Service units in his 1931 plan for Mount Rainier National Park. It established the principle of designating specific areas as wilderness. [4]
Several private architects, though not the subject of this article, also made important contributions to the development of the NPS rustic architectural style. Gilbert Stanley Underwood designed several important rustic works in the National Parks, including Old Faithful Lodge (1923), Bryce Canyon Lodge (1925), Ahwahnee Hotel (1926), Zion Lodge (1927), and Grand Canyon Lodge (1928). Mary Colter also contributed a number of important early works, including the Mary Jane Colter buildings at Grand Canyon National Park.
Works attributed to the architects of the National Park Service or to its architect subgroups, include the following (with attribution variations). Some works are specifically noted to be done by the "NPS Landscape Architecture Division" or the "NPS Landscape Engineering Division"; some are noted to be works of the "NPS Office of Design & Construction" or the "NPS Branch of Plans and Design". [5]
Nowhere in Rocky Mountain National Park is the theme of NPS Rustic Architecture exemplified better than in the Utility Area Historic District. [41]
National Park Service rustic – sometimes colloquially called Parkitecture – is a style of architecture that developed in the early and middle 20th century in the United States National Park Service (NPS) through its efforts to create buildings that harmonized with the natural environment. Since its founding in 1916, the NPS sought to design and build visitor facilities without visually interrupting the natural or historic surroundings. The early results were characterized by intensive use of hand labor and a rejection of the regularity and symmetry of the industrial world, reflecting connections with the Arts and Crafts movement and American Picturesque architecture.
Thomas Chalmers Vint was a landscape architect credited for directing and shaping landscape planning and development during the early years of the United States National Park System. His work at Yosemite National Park and the development of the Mission 66 program are among his better known projects, although his influence can be seen in parks across America. Vint's true talents lay in his design elements. These can best be described as rustic, relating to how he was able to harmonize structures with their natural surroundings. Vint was awarded the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor conferred for meritorious service to the U.S. government. He was made a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and American Institute of Architects.
Grand Canyon Village Historic District comprises the historic center of Grand Canyon Village, on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. The district includes numerous landmark park structures, many of which are National Historic Landmarks themselves, or are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The town design as a whole is also significant for its attention to integration with the Grand Canyon landscape, its incorporation of National Park Service Rustic design elements, and for the idiosyncratic design of park concessioner structures such as the El Tovar Hotel.
The Death Canyon Barn is a combination barn and ranger patrol cabin in Grand Teton National Park. The barn was built in Death Canyon on the Death Canyon Trail at its junction with the Alaska Basin Trail by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935 in the National Park Service rustic style. Located with a clear view of Prospector Mountain, it shares a common style and purpose with the Cascade Canyon Barn to the north in the park, with minor differences attributable to available materials and the preferences of the work crews building the barns.
The Roes Creek Campground Camptender's Cabin, also known as the Rising Sun Campground Ranger Cabin, in Glacier National Park is an example of the National Park Service Rustic style.
The Sun Camp Fireguard Cabin, also known as the Baring Creek Cabin or Baring Cabin, in Glacier National Park was an example of the National Park Service Rustic style. Built in 1935 by local contractor Harry E. Doverspike, the cabin was the last remaining building of the Sun Camp Ranger Station complex of buildings, which at one time included a ranger station, barn and woodshed located near the mouth of Baring Creek. The fireguard cabin was built according to cabin specifications provided by the NPS Division of Landscape Architecture. The only apparent dissimilarity is the center-wall placement of the entry. There was no indoor plumbing and heat was provided by a wood stove whose stovepipe exited through the back log wall to a stone chimney.
The Goathaunt Bunkhouse was built as a service structure by the Glacier Park Hotel Company for the development of the Goathaunt site in Glacier National Park. This was part of the Great Northern Railway's broader development of the park as a tourist destination. The bunkhouse is the last surviving structure of this era at this location, near the southern end of Waterton Lake. Its design has been attributed to National Park Service landscape architect Thomas Chalmers Vint.
The Kintla Lake Ranger Station in Glacier National Park is a rustic log structure that was built by the Butte Oil Company in 1900 at Kintla Lake. It was taken over by the National Park Service and used as a ranger station. It is significant as a remnant of early oil exploration activities in the Glacier area. A boathouse was built by the National Park Service in 1935 to the same design as the boathouses at Upper Lake McDonald and Saint Mary ranger stations. A fire cache cabin, identical to those at Logging Creek, Polebridge and Lake McDonald ranger stations was built in 1934.
The Lower Logging Lake Snowshoe Cabin and Boathouse were built in 1933 in Glacier National Park near the southwestern end of Logging Lake. The National Park Service Rustic boathouse stores rangers' canoes for patrolling the lake and their journeys between Upper and Lower Logging Lake patrol cabins. The Lower Logging Lake snowshoe cabin is nearby. They are a significant resources both architecturally and historically, constructed for backcountry patrols.
The Cabin Creek Ranger Residence and Dormitory, also known as the Cabin Creek Ranger Station, were built in 1934 and 1935 in Sequoia National Park by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The three-room wood-frame residence and the two-room dormitory are examples of the National Park Service Rustic style.
The historical buildings and structures of Zion National Park represent a variety of buildings, interpretive structures, signs and infrastructure associated with the National Park Service's operations in Zion National Park, Utah. Structures vary in size and scale from the Zion Lodge to road culverts and curbs, nearly all of which were designed using native materials and regional construction techniques in an adapted version of the National Park Service Rustic style. A number of the larger structures were designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, while many of the smaller structures were designed or coordinated with the National Park Service Branch of Plans and Designs. The bulk of the historic structures date to the 1920s and 1930s. Most of the structures of the 1930s were built using Civilian Conservation Corps labor.
The Wonderland Trail is an approximately 93-mile (150 km) hiking trail that circumnavigates Mount Rainier in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, United States. The trail goes over many ridges of Mount Rainier for a cumulative 22,000 feet (6,700 m) of elevation gain. The trail was built in 1915.
The Three Lakes Patrol Cabin was built in 1934 in Mount Rainier National Park as a district ranger station. The log cabin was built to a standard plan designed by W.G. Carnes, Acting Chief Architect of the National Park Service Branch of Plans and Designs, supervised by Thomas Chalmers Vint. The cabin measures about 13.5 feet (4.1 m) by 24 feet (7.3 m). It is a simple gable structure with a shed roof over the front door, supported by brackets. The eaves have a similar bracket detail. Log ends project prominently at the corners. It consists of a single room, unfinished apart from a wood floor.
Architects of the United States Forest Service are credited with the design of many buildings and other structures in National Forests. Some of these are listed on the National Register of Historic Places due to the significance of their architecture. A number of these architectural works are attributed to architectural groups within the Forest Service rather than to any individual architect. Architecture groups or sections were formed within engineering divisions of many of the regional offices of the Forest Service and developed regional styles.
The Caverns Historic District comprises the central developed area of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The complex was built between the early 1920s and 1942, initially in Pueblo Revival style, and later in New Mexico Territorial Revival style in the area around the natural entrance to Carlsbad Caverns. The earlier structures are built of local limestone, the later buildings in adobe. Thirteen buildings in the district are considered contributing structures. Buildings built between 1940 and 1942 were constructed with labor provided by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Daniel Ray Hull (1890–1964), sometimes stated Daniel P. Hull, was an American landscape architect who was responsible for much of the early planning of the built environment the national parks of the United States during the 1920s. Hull planned town sites, designed landscapes, and designed individual buildings for the Park Service, in private practice, and later for the California State Parks. A number of his works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
John Bernard Wosky was an American architect and landscape architect and park superintendent. He worked for the National Park Service from the 1920s through the 1950s and designed a number of works that have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He was assigned to Yosemite National Park from 1928 to 1952, initially as the parks's resident architect, and later as its assistant superintendent. He later served as the superintendent at Crater Lake National Park and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
The Thunder Lake Trail-Bluebird Lake Trail near Allens Park, Colorado was built in 1926. It was designed by National Park Service architects and was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It includes Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements, Rustic, and other architecture. The trail subsumes or is associated with Ouzel Lake Trail, the Arbuckle Lake(s) Trail, the Wild Basin Trail, and the North St. Vrain Creek Trail.
The Tonahutu Creek Trail, in the general area of Grand Lake, Colorado, in both Grand and Larimer counties, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.