A History of the Architecture of the USDA Forest Service

"The fate of the architect is the strangest of all. How often he expends his whole soul, his heart and passion, to produce buildings into which he himself may never enter."

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities

Administrative Buildings

The category of Forest Service buildings with the greatest number and most diverse types is administrative buildings. These cover all areas of work and living needs. Lookout towers are part of this group, but will be covered separately. Administrative buildings include offices, dwellings, barracks, messhalls, bunkhouses, warehouses, shops, fueling stations, and nursery buildings. Architectural styles tend to fall into eras, location within the Nation, and local trends and materials available. There is more consistency within each site, at least regarding materials.

In the earlier eras, the plan layout for buildings was limited by availability of designers and the buildings' functions. Most of the 1938 "Acceptable Plans" book covered administrative buildings, giving many floor plans and various elevation styles. As the first Service-wide compilation of this type, most of the Regions used it only as a starting point for their designs and did not copy the individual buildings.

There is more continuity within the various Forest Service Regions throughout the eras than there is between Regions during an era. Traced to climate, local materials available, and overlap of personnel between the eras, this can be seen in the regional plans and elevations shown in the 1938 "Acceptable Plans" book. Another difference between Regions is the year the first architect was brought on staff.

Offices

Through the various eras, the need for and the size of office buildings has changed tremendously. At the start, Forest Service contact with the public was limited and a small room rented in the nearest town was sufficient. It was not until the 1930's that buildings with the primary use of office space and public contact were required and constructed. Even then they were one to four rooms located in the nearest town to the forest land being managed. After World War II until the 1970's, the largest district offices had only 5 to 15 rooms, but with a better public contact area. Supervisors' offices during the 1930's and 1940's were smaller than district offices in the 1980's.

The design and styles of offices follow the regional styles and eras described in chapter 1. Not until the modern era were the differences between Regions dependent upon who was the design architect rather than the direction of the agency. Once the "Acceptable Plans" book went out of favor and there was no architect in the Washington Office, the Regions began to establish their own design style (sometimes even within a Region there were State styles). There was still a predominant use of wood with pitched rather than flat roofs, but as we approach the present day, more and more of the materials conform to the regional standards. Figures 2-1 and 2-2 and the photos and drawings on pages 68 through 80 show these variations in design and style.

Figure 2-1. Blue Ridge Ranger Station Office and warehouse, Blairsville, Georgia

Figure 2-2. Groveland Ranger District Office, Groveland California, Region 5 (1991)

The only Regional Office designed and constructed by the Forest Service is in Ogden, Utah (figures 2-3 and 2-4). George Nichols, the newly hired Regional Architect for Region 4, was given the task to develop plans for a Government-owned structure when the leased office first occupied in 1909 became inadequate. He presented his concept for a square four-story building near the center of town to the Regional Forester in October 1928. After submission upward, Senator Reed Smoot of Utah came to Ogden. He agreed that the Forest Service should remain in Ogden and stated that he would support the new office. He passed this information on to the Treasury Department, then responsible for Federal buildings. They sent W. Arthur Newman, District Engineer, Treasury Department Field Force, Office of the Supervising Architects, San Francisco, California, to Ogden to make a study of the leased building occupied and the plans developed by Nichols. Newman went through the entire building with Nichols and the Regional Forester and agreed with the Forest Service proposal.

Figure 2-3. Region 4 Office, Ogden, Utah (1933)

Figure 2-4. Entrance detail, Region 4 Office

The Second Efficiency Bill, which passed both houses of Congress in February 1931 and was subsequently signed by the President, included $300,000 for the building. As with many political issues, along with the appropriation of dollars came directions from above. In this case a local architectural firm, Hodgson-McClenahan, was given the responsibility for preparing the final contract documents, using much of what Nichols had recommended and documented. The final building was a brick and terra cotta Art Deco structure, three stories of offices with a basement and a greenhouse on the roof.

The construction contract was awarded to Murch Brothers of St. Louis for $229,000. The National Lumbermen's Association wrote a letter objecting to the design and requesting a greater utilization of wood in the construction of the building. Several changes were made: wood piling, wood frames and sashes on the first floor, hardwood floors (oak) for all offices, wood bases, and wood trims on the first floor.

Housing

Provision for housing of Forest Service employees has been a need since the earliest days. Tents and lean-to's to log cabins were the prevalent housing during the first era of the agency. Later, when families stayed with the rangers and offices were set up in town, more sophisticated dwellings were built on the same compound as the office and warehouse or storage area or near them on another lot (figure 2-5).

Figure 2-5. Ranger Residence, Pestigo Ranger Station, Nicolet National Forest, Region 9 (1936)

When fire suppression and timber sales became part of the administration of the National Forests, there came a need for housing for crews. Early barracks were just residences with extra bedrooms and a larger kitchen and dining room. In the 1930's, crews were larger and totally male, so the housing for crews included bunk rooms, lounges, large bath facilities, and kitchen and dining areas (figures 2-6 and 2-7).

Figure 2-6. Bunk house, Region 1

Figure 2-7. Thirty-person crew house, Region 6

There was very little change in single-family dwellings and crew quarters during the next 30 years except for materials and styles based on the Region. In the 1960's, several changes created different design approaches. First, the crews became larger and more diversified (fire, timber, recreation, lands, wildlife, and so forth) and worked in the field in different seasons. The buildings took on a character of either meeting the needs of a special workgroup such as a fire crew (figure 2-8), or the crews were housed in separate smaller buildings (see figures 2-40 and 2-41 on page 81 for some examples). Another trend during this phase was the use of trailers as portable camps that would follow the work. In California, one forest had more than 100 small trailers that were taken to the field in the spring and stored at lower elevations during the winter.

Figure 2-8. White Oaks Fire Station, Los Padres National Forest, Region 5 (1967)

When the Job Corps was founded during the Johnson Administration, the Forest Service was one of the major players in providing space and work for this new venture. The first centers were trailers or modular structures purchased under Department of Labor design standards. Because there were so many being started at the same time, long delays in delivery were encountered, so the various Regions went into a crash design program to construct stick-built structures for the centers. Many of the trailers did not last very long. Region 5 and the Bureau of Reclamation in Denver were given the task of designing replacement buildings for these damaged trailers. A concept of pole buildings was developed for housing and dining facilities (figures 2-9 and 2-10). The architects in California were given Certificates of Merit by Chief Ed Cliff for their work (see figure 3—15 on page 216).

Figure 2-9. Concept for Job Corps dormitories

Figure 2-10. Concept for Job Corps kitchen and messhall

Warehouse and Storage Facilities

Few of the Forest Service warehouse and storage facilities are unique to the agency. As with any organization that provides its own facilities to cover all administrative activities, many diverse building types are needed. During most of its history, the Forest Service has owned a fleet of automobiles and trucks; therefore, the need for autoshops has been a necessity (figure 2-11). Also, since many of the areas administered are in the mountains, horse and mule barns, including hay storage, have been needed (figure 2-12). Warehouse and storage buildings have been needed for firefighting supplies and equipment, recreation, operation and maintenance, and timber management, as well as for other specialized forest management activities. Additional examples of warehouse and storage building designs can be found in Figures 2-56 through 2-60 on pages 89 to 91.

Figure 2-11. CCC Central Repair Shop, Region 6

Figure 2-12. Three-horse barn, Region 6

Nursery Buildings

Sometime in the early 1900's, the Forest Service started a tree planting program to regenerate the forests after tree harvesting and fires (figure 2-13). The buildings required for these processes—germination of seeds, packing of seedlings after lifting from growing beds, storage of seedlings until planting, and so forth—provided challenges to the designers and architects. Examples of successful nursery building projects include the administration building at the Savenac Nursery in Region 1 (figure 2-14). The Savenac Nursery has operated continuously since it was established in 1909 near Haugen, Montana.

Figure 2-13. Western yellow pine beds, McCloud Nursery, Shasta National Forest, California (1914)

Figure 2-14. Administration Building, Savenac Nursery, Region 1

A tree storage building at the Mt. Shasta Nursery in California designed in the early 1940's had 12-inch-thick walls filled with redwood bark to keep the trees in a dormant state from November until planting in April or May of the next year. Another cold-storage building can be found at the Placerville Nursery (see figure 2-15). The most recent nursery complex designed and constructed was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the mid-1980's.

Figure 2-15. Cold Storage Building, Placerville Nursery, Region 5 (1980)

Gallery of Forest Service Administrative Buildings
Offices

Figure 2-16. Minarets Ranger District Office, Sierra National Forest, California

Figure 2-17. Brush Creek Office, Grand Mesa National Forest, Region 2 (1936)

Figure 2-18. Office Building, Region 4

Figure 2-19. Magdalena-Augustine District Office, Cibola National Forests, Region 3 (1938)

Figure 2-20. Quilcene Office, Olympic National Forest, Region 6 (1968)

Figure 2-21. Quinault Ranger Station, Olympic National Forest, Region 6 (1974)

Figure 2-22. Big Sur Multiagency Office, Los Padres National Forest, Region 5 (1989)

Figure 2-23. Hebo District Office, Siuslaw National Forest, Region 6 (1972)

Figure 2-24. Black Hills National Forest Supervisor's Office, Custer, South Dakota, Region 2 (1980)

Figure 2-25. Plumas National Forest Supervisor's Office, Quincy, California, Region 5 (1962)

Figure 2-26. Sawtooth National Recreation Area Ranger Office, Ketchum, Idaho, Region 4 (1978)

Figure 2-27. Pecos Ranger Station, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Region 3 (1994)

Figure 2-28. Supervisor's Office, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Region 4 (1966)

Figure 2-29. Mount Roger's Ranger Office, Jefferson National Forest, Region 8

Figure 2-30. Tuskegee Ranger Office, National Forests of Alabama, Region 8

Figure 2-31. Sanpete District Office, Manti-LaSal National Forest, Region 4 (1944)

Figure 2-32. Entrance detail, Sanpete District Office, Manti-LaSal National Forest, Region 4 (1994)

Figure 2-33. Lost River District Office, Challis National Forest, Region 4 (1983)

Figure 2-34. Wise River Ranger Office, Beaverhead National Forest, Region 1 (1982)

Figure 2-35. Box Elder Job Corps Center Office, Region 2 (1974)

Figure 2-36. Catalina Ranger Office, Caribbean National Forest, Region 8 (1980)

Figure 2-37. Saguache Ranger District Office, Rio Grande National Forest, Region 2 (1985)

Figure 2-38. Bienville Ranger Office, Bienville National Forest, Mississippi, Region 8 (1980)

Figure 2-39. Ketchikan Ranger District and Misty Fiords National Monument Administrative Offices, Ketchikan, Alaska, Region 10 (1986)

Gallery of Forest Service Administrative Buildings
Housing

Figure 2-40. Black Rock Crew Quarters, Sequoia National Forest, Region 5 (1969)

Figure 2-41. Dalton Barracks, Angeles National Forest, Region 5 (1974)

Figure 2-42. West Yellowstone Barracks, Gallatin National Forest, Region 1 (1972)

Figure 2-43. Ten-person barracks, Tyrrell Work Center, Bighorn National Forest, Region 2

Figure 2-44. Philipsburg Ranger Station residence

Figure 2-45. Three-room dwelling, Region 4

Figure 2-46. Four-room dwelling, Region 4

Figure 2-47. Residences, Avery Ranger Station, Panhandle National Forest, Region 1 (1982)

Figure 2-48. Ranger district capitan dwelling, Lincoln National Forest, Region 3 (1938)

Figure 2-49. Residence, Bailey Ranger Station, Pike National Forest, Region 2 (1937)

Figure 2-50. Supervisor's residence, Clear Creek Ranger Station, Arapaho National Forest, Region 2 (1939)

Figure 2-51. Nurseryman's residence, Monument Nursery, Pike National Forest, Region 2 (1939)

Figure 2-52. Concrete-block residence, Angeles National Forest, Region 5 (1960)

Figure 2-53. Pole building in snow country, Sequoia National Forest, Region 5 (1970)

Figure 2-54. Dewlling, South Park Ranger District, Pike-San Isabel National Forest, Region 2 (1975)

Figure 2-55. Petersburg apartment complex, Tongass-Stikine Area, Region 10 (1998)

Gallery of Forest Service Administrative Buildings
Warehouse and Storage Facilities

Figure 2-56. Cochetopa Warehouse, Salida Work Center, San Isabel National Forest, Region 2 (1938)

Figure 2-57. Warehouse and shop, North Bend Ranger Station, Snoqualmie National Forest, Region 6 (1937)

Figure 2-58. Shop and barn, Anita Moqui Ranger Station, Kaibab National Forest, Region 3

Figure 2-59. Big Sur Warehouse, Los Padres National Forest, Region 5 (1992)

Figure 2-60. Mule Creek Boat Dock and Monorail, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Region 5

Specialized Fire Suppression Facilities

In the late 1950's and early 1960's, a major change came to Forest Service fire management operations as the airplane became a major player in fire suppression. Three Regions took the most active role in providing the new buildings and amenities at airports near small communities. Region 1 built at Missoula, Montana; Region 5 at Redding, California, and Region 6 at Redmond, Oregon. Examples of these types of buildings can be found in Figures 2-61 through 2-63 on pages 92 and 93.

Gallery of Forest Service Administrative Buildings
Specialized Fire Suppression Facilities

Figure 2-61. McCall Smokejumper Training Base, Payette National Forest, Region 4 (1987)

Figure 2-62. West Yellowstone Fire Control Center, Montana, Region 1 (1965)

Figure 2-63. Air Center, Redmond, Oregon