A History of the Architecture of the USDA Forest Service

1946-Present: The Modern Period

After the war, there were many changes in the focus and organization of the Forest Service. One was an increase in recreational use of national forest land, which led to a renewed emphasis on facilities construction, including campgrounds, restrooms, boat ramps, and trails. In 1947, 25 percent of the maintenance and improvement dollars were authorized for recreation improvements. The architects who had been working on the guayule project returned to their regional positions and started hiring new, younger graduate architects.

The era of handcrafted construction ended with the disbandment of the CCC. Attention shifted toward postwar plans for expansion. Projects in progress before 1942 were completed, but construction of new improvements had been halted by the war. Shifts in the use of the forests resulted in changes in administrative methods; some permanent ranger stations became "work centers," a new term coined to replace the outdated "guard station," which had acquired the wrong connotation during the war.

Regional Architects

The following paragraphs provide a brief outline of individuals who served as Regional Architects during this period. See Chapter 3, People, for more detailed information on the design styles of contributing architects.

At the start of 1946, Regions 2, 3, 7, and 8 did not have Regional Architects. This void remained in some Regions until the end of the 1950's or later.

In Region 1, Clyde Fickes left the Forest Service before the end of the war, and Harry Coughlan took over the position of Regional Architect. Most of the work just after the war was custodial, bringing the many buildings and stations that had been neglected back to standard and correcting safety hazards. The need for additional staff did not occur until the early 1950's, when Congress enacted legislation to provide improved and additional recreational facilities. Art Anderson was the first professional hired in Region 1 after the war, and he took over as Regional Architect when Coughlan retired in 1965. In 1972, Bob LeCain became Regional Architect and Anderson took over as administrative and planning leader. When LeCain retired in 1985, Dave Dodson took over the position and remained until 1990. Josiah Kim was the Regional Architect from 1990 to 1997.

In Region 2, W. Earle Jackson departed sometime in 1942 and the Regional Architect's position was not filled until Wes Wilkison was hired in 1958. When Wilkison retired in 1981, Dave Faulk became Regional Architect.

Region 3 did not have a Regional Architect of record until George Kirkham was hired in the mid 1960's. George Nichols did building designs for the Region from Ogden during the CCC era. After Kirkham left, Lou Archambault took over the position. Soon after, Hal Miller transferred from Portland to become Regional Architect. In the early 1990's, Kurt Kretvix became Regional Architect.

George Nichols in Region 4 was not part of the guayule project. There are no records during the war years to indicate whether he went into the military or just continued working for the Forest Service. In 1946, he was listed as the Regional Architect. William Turner was hired in 1958 to assist in the design work and took over as Regional Architect when Nichols retired. When Turner retired, Wilden Moffett took over the post of Regional Architect.

Keplar Johnson returned to his position as Regional Architect in Region 5 after the guayule project. Like most American architects, he was increasingly influenced by the modern movement in architecture after World War II. In several of his postwar buildings, Johnson continued the design themes that had marked the Region's building program of the 1930's. But even in these structures, Johnson was influenced by the ideas of the modern movement. Johnson revised many of Blanchard and Maher's plans and designed a number of new plans for specific sites within the Region.

After Johnson's retirement in 1962, Harry Kevich was named Regional Architect. Kevich increased the architectural staff by hiring young architects just out of college. He played a more managerial role and delegated most of the design work to this staff. They developed a more contemporary, modern style building for the California Region. Bob Sandusky became Regional Architect upon Kevich's retirement in 1985.

Tim Turner continued as Regional Architect in Region 6 during the war years, and he continued to work until a heart attack caused an untimely death in 1951. A.P. "Benny" DiBenedetto was hired to replace him from the Army Corps of Engineers. When DiBenedetto took over as Research Architect for the Pacific Northwest Station, Ken Reynolds was named Regional Architect. When Reynolds left, Joe Mastrandrea served as Regional Architect. JoAnn Simpson was Mastrandrea's successor.

Region 8 was without a Regional Architect from 1942, when DeFord Smith departed, until 1968, when William Speer was hired. Because there was no lead architect in Atlanta, Speer went to San Francisco to serve an apprenticeship under Harry Kevich and John Grosvenor. Speer spent a year working in Region 5, doing the designs for Region 8, before returning to Region 8 to continue as Regional Architect.

Nels Orne returned from the guayule project in 1945 and continued as Regional Architect in Region 9, where he worked until his appointment to Branch Chief for Facilities in 1965. His successor was Jim Calvery from Region 5. Upon Calvery's retirement, Dave Dercks was named Regional Architect.

Shortly before World War II, Linn Forrest transferred to Juneau to serve as the first Regional Architect for Region 10. His tenure did not last very long, as he and his son opened a private practice in Juneau in 1952. After Forrest left, George Danner, a technician, provided leadership in the design and maintenance of buildings until his retirement. At this time, there is no professional architect in Region 10.

Projects

In 1952, improvement projects nationwide were focused on rehabilitation, relocation, replacement, or reconstruction of older facilities. The Chiefs message again emphasized the need for prior approval for construction projects to ascertain whether the project was essential to efficient program operation. In the mid-1950's, funding for construction remained low—only $100,000 was available nationwide. The following years were characterized by continued decentralization, specialization, and increasing workloads for rangers and staff. Forest engineers bore the responsibility of overseeing improvement programs on individual forests.

The early 1960's ushered in another era in Forest Service administration that demanded an architectural response. New "make work," educational. and other social economic programs brought accelerated public works, Job Corps, prison labor camps, Youth Conservation Corps, and other programs to the national forests. These work programs provided educational opportunities, vocational training, and practical skills in construction and other forestry activities for young and unemployed people. Congress allocated enormous funding for these and similar programs, which brought the Forest Service a huge influx of design and construction projects (figure 1-41).

Figure 1-41. Trapper Creek Job Corps Center, Bitterroot National Forest, Region 1 (1965)

In the 1970's, the emphasis turned to clean water. Water pollution abatement brought the Forest Service many millions of dollars to provide modern campgrounds and sewer systems to serve recreational and administrative sites. Since the early 1960's, the architectural staffing in the Regions had grown to be equal to or greater in size than that of the CCC era. About this time, there was a reduction in Job Corps centers in several Regions (California, for example, went from five centers to none). As of this date, there are still six centers in Region 8 as well as centers in Regions 1, 2, and 6.

Forest Service Research relied on the Regions to provide the design and maintenance of the buildings on the experimental forest and station headquarters and laboratories. A.P. "Benny" DiBenedetto was the first professional architect hired on staff to do the designs for the Pacific Northwest Experiment Station in 1961. Bob Sandusky was hired by the Pacific Southwest Station in 1965. The other research stations continued to rely on the Regions or private architectural firms for their building designs. The North Central Station is the only research station that still has an architect on staff.

Beginning in the 1960's, the architectural staffs in the Forest Service took on a more philosophical design approach rather than concentrating on specific styles or themes. Contrary to Groben's dictates of the 1930's, architects produced designs that fused the modern with the vernacular of the past, seeking designs appropriate for the forest environment and comparable with the existing buildings on the sites.

Some of the new, innovative programs and projects like the Job Corps, accelerated public works, the Clean Water Act, and visitor centers have allowed the Regions to hire additional architectural staff. In addition, cooperative work with other agencies has allowed additional use of recently graduated architects.