Chapter 4.7 The North Pacific Province “A natural environment of this magnificence and grandeur has had a humbling impact on the region's architecture.… This is not the climate for loud and glamorous architecture.” —Douglas Kelbaugh NORTH PACIFIC North Pacific 180 4.7 ARCHITECTURAL GUIDELINES FOR THE NORTH PACIFIC PROVINCE OVERVIEW: CHARACTER OF THE NORTH PACIFIC PROVINCE BUILT AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS The North Pacific Province includes the national forests and scenic areas in northern California, north- western Oregon and Washington, and the coastal region of Alaska. This is a land of dramatic landscapes and climate and diverse cultural influences. These elements are frequently celebrated through a regional architectural style called Cascadian. The landscape has been altered but not nearly tamed by human settlement. It is still being shaped by volcanoes, glaciers, seismic movement, and tidal surges. Climate, maritime contrasts are everywhere. The province’s rainiest forces, and landscape are inseparable elements. point in the Olympic Range (240 inches per year) Some areas receive more than 100 inches of rain is a day’s hike from its driest coastal spot, NORTH annually; others up to 26 feet of snow. The Dungeness Spit (15 inches). Gorge, the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, and PACIFIC intense precipitation fosters lush, dense plant Forest Service design in the North Pacific includes the Visitor Center at Mendenhall Glacier are life, including a rare temperate-zone rainforest a richness worthy of this landscape. The bridges, only three examples of Forest Service structures and some of the world’s largest trees. Vivid parkways, and buildings of the Columbia River that match the grandeur of their settings. ARCHITECTURAL GUIDELINES FOR THE NORTH PACIFIC PROVINCE 4.7 181 INFLUENCES ON ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER LANDSCAPE AND ECOLOGICAL and west in the Chugach National Forest, the land “The great trees are seldom crowded, and their masses are constantly columnar trunks may rise dozens of feet skyward shifting in a landscape before the first branches appear. …The space dominated by glaciers. beneath may be open enough that light filtered Broad valleys contain filled- through the upper branches is diffused to create in fiords that have become a softly luminous glow throughout. The effect is marshlands bisected by not one of gloom, but of solemnity.” glacially fed rivers. The —Stephen Whitney, Western Forests archipelago of coastal islands is Literature about the North Pacific consistently foggy, heavily forested, and separated by sounds such themes as reverence for nature and deep channels. Throughout Alaska, the a strong desire to harmonize with the setting. landscape, sky, light, and water reflect the colors Perhaps this is because the province possesses of glacial blue, of gray fog, and of white winter. For among them. The Cascades are such a wild and grand scale. People have a front a brief burst in summer, wildflowers alter the a place with abundant rivers, streams, and row seat on major ecological processes. Glaciers, landscape with an explosion of color. waterfalls. The west side comes in many shades rivers that change course, volcanoes, and of green dictated by ferns, mosses, and big trees The most visible geology results from angular earthquakes shape a young landscape that that stay green through the year. High rainfall forms of graywacke shale. Even at lower elevations, seems only recently emerged from the primeval intensifies colors in the landscape. trees cover the landscape only in patches. The era. West of the Cascades, the maritime climate treeline can occur as low as 1,500 feet. East of the Cascades is much drier with sparse creates moderate temperatures and high vegetation. Rolling hills and high prairies are The Cascade and Klamath ranges of Washington, precipitation. This maritime influence sends punctuated by volcanic cones. Space between Oregon, and northern California are extremely storms from the west to the east. trees seems open and expansive with long vistas. rugged, with large mountains dominated by volcanic In Alaska, the steep mountains of the Tongass The landscape is generally rural rather than peaks and deep, heavy snows at higher elevations. National Forest collide with the ocean. Inland wilderness with irrigated fields, pasture, orchards, Some of the world’s largest and oldest trees live are glacially carved valleys, lakes, and waterfalls. and rangeland. Colors are warm with pastel hues within this lush, cool coniferous forest: Douglas fir, The Coast Range meets a sea dotted with varied by the rock and soil visible through the Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and coast redwood tidewater glaciers and islands. Farther north vegetation. Shades of dark gray, dark brown, and 182 4.7 ARCHITECTURAL GUIDELINES FOR THE NORTH PACIFIC PROVINCE black are evident in rock formations of columnar forts (Russian). They typically used broad-hewn 1930’s, the WPA built Timberline Lodge, an Arts basalt. Signature trees include ponderosa pine, logs locked in dovetail joints. Onion-dome Russian and Crafts extravaganza that employed scores lodgepole pine, and sugar pine. churches endure along coastal Alaska. of masons, carpenters, sculptors, and artisans. North central California includes the Mediterranean Agricultural Structures: The simple forms of Alaska: Many Alaskan buildings and sites were subarea of this province embracing the northern traditional Willamette Valley barns have inspired designed for access by boat or float plane. Sierra Nevadas. Here coniferous forests, shaped many contemporary architects and artists. These Alaskan design ranges from the Quonset huts of by long summer droughts and mild wet winters, picturesque barns employed building techniques the Aleutian Islands, to the Russian churches of are extremely diverse. Species range from giant in use since medieval times: heavily timbered Sitka, to industrial oil terminals and canneries. sequoia in the high mountains to California red fir frame construction held together by skillfully Coastal fishing villages are a building type to bristlecone pine. made mortice and tenon joints. somewhat unique to Alaska. These villages typically feature brightly colored cottages rising CULTURAL Rustic: From about 1890 to 1940, architects and designers created a Northwestern variation on steep slopes straight up from the waterfront. Native American Design: The original Native on the rustic design called Cascadian. An early Northwest Modernism: The Modernist movement American inhabitants built to deal with example is the Cloud Cap Inn, a hikers’ lodge on aimed to create a worldwide design—the so-called precipitation. Along the Pacific coast, on the Mt. Hood, perhaps inspired by rustic buildings International style. The Northwest responded with Columbia River plateau, and within the Great then being constructed in the Adirondacks. variations. In the 1930’s and 1940’s, architects Basin, the inhabitants of each area made their Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon designed modernist own adaptations. The CCC of the 1930’s incorporated rustic design and a high level of craft into public works. A churches inspired by barns of Oregon’s Willamette In the coastal zone, houses were made of planks notable example is the shelters, pavilions, way Valley. They adapted their buildings to the from driftwood logs or sometimes split from the stations, and comfort facilities built along the Northwest by using wood as a structural material sides of living trees. The large communal dwelling Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway. In the late and by including broad roof overhangs to keep might be a gable-roofed long house with vertical rain off windows. More recent architects skillfully plank walls, as among the Quinault in Washington, meld natural and industrial materials suggesting or shed-roofed long houses, as among the that modern design can be contemporary in Tillimook. In southern Oregon and northern spirit, massive in scale for durability’s NORTH California, the Umpqua, Chetco, Yurok, and Hoopa sake, and yet comforting to the PACIFIC built related types of “hooped branch” houses. human touch and scale. European Settlers: The first European settlers built log structures, often using trees cleared for farming. They built farmhouses (Scandinavians, English, Germans), trading posts (French), and ARCHITECTURAL GUIDELINES FOR THE NORTH PACIFIC PROVINCE 4.7 183 SUMMARY OF INFLUENCES AND RESPONSES THAT SHAPE THE CHARACTER OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT ECOLOGICAL INFLUENCES • Moist, cool climate with lots of rain, fog, mist, • Declination of the sun and snow. that creates radical • Temperate maritime climate. angles of light. • In California, hot climate with Mediterranean • Long vistas with influence and design responses similar to the snow-capped Southwest Province. volcanic peaks. • Rugged terrain with many rock outcrops and • Sunlight that has lava flows. become important, • Volcanoes, glaciers, and earthquakes that even revered, when it are still shaping a young landscape with appears because of sharp peaks and massive landforms. prevalent gray skies • Prevailing winds from the west, and short winter days. with highs from the northwest and lows from the southwest. • Lush, dense vegetation that is green year-round. • Forests that are largely coniferous and contain the world’s largest and oldest trees. • Water elements, including lakes, rivers, fiords, and waterfalls, that are prevalent and of a large scale. • Much landscape that occupies the edge between ocean and land—a magnet for diversity of people and wildlife.