Now + Then

John stewardson Memorial fellowship in architecture entry   |   SPRING 2020

South Mount Hawkins Fire Tower, Lodge, and Climate Lab

For as long as humans have inhabited the San Gabriel Mountains in California, they have been carving marks into sand and stone, communicating and communing with humanity and the same natural forces that craft our life today. Scores of millennia later - just a scratch on the timeline of the earth's history - our tools have improved, but only slightly: we humans are dwarfed by the massive mountains, using little tools to monitor the gargantuan forces of nature.

In this larger-than-life context, the fire tower on South Mount Hawkins in Angeles National Forest is another small-but-mighty etch in the sand. This minimal, efficient facility does not ask much of the environment or its inhabitants. Instead, it challenges us to be better stewards of our environment: constantly vigilant, increasingly resourceful, radically hospitable, and preparing for a better tomorrow

The facility’s construction and operation minimize use of off-site resources. The process of excavation for the rammed earth simultaneously builds up main structural walls and carves out spaces into the mountainside. The surrounding earth also helps insulate the interior in all extreme weather conditions. The orientation of the lab and lodge protects them from strong western winds and illuminates spaces with morning daylight. Fire-resistant light steel framing also allows ease of construction and offers resilience in the inevitability of a fire. If and when the steel's structural properties have been compromised and only the rammed earth ruins remain, the building's simple footprint will memorialize its existence for years to come as the forest regrows around it.

The fire tower, from a distance perhaps resembling a bird on the horizon, shelters visitors from the wind in its rammed-earth palm without obstructing views to Los Angeles toward the south. It also provides space for a safely controlled fire and the opportunity for an art installation in honor of fire-fighting staff, volunteers, and victims. Visiting hikers may camp at the tower's base, while longer-term visitors and staff are provided with comfortable lodgings with generous vistas of the sunrise and ample communal space. A spacious climate lab provides flexible space for storage, study, and shelter in the case of emergency. 

Just beyond these facilities, the charred remains of the former fire tower (burned down in 2002) both memorialize the past and nod to the new fire tower’s distant future. But for now, for a while, we are here to rest, commune, study, and relish in each second on this scraggly earth.