TAA project: Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, CO

[Jeff Myers]

I will have to see what I can do.

[jim]

SDR - it appears we are both in SF - how do I get the slides to you?

[SDR]

Ah -- well if you have slides I may not be able to do anything with them. My last HP copier/scanner had a device for reading slides -- but the lid containing this device was so heavy that the poor little plastic hinge mounts weren't up to the task, and the whole thing became kaput as a result. Blame Carly Fiorina ?

Members who have images in other formats, but no web host, sometimes e-mail me their JPGs and I can post those. . .

SDR

[Jeff Myers]

I could not find this in any Arch. Forum or Arch. Record in 1966 not even an ad. I was waiting to leave for lunch so I perused through the books but no luck. Could it be in 1967 Arch. Record or Arch. Forum? or even 1965. There were some neat designs in the 1966 Arch. Record made my lunch even more pleasant.
I will be back there on Tuesday so drop a few hints on which one should have it.

[Roderick Grant]

Since the building was constructed in 1966, ads would probably have started appearing in 1967 or later. Do you have Progressive Architecture? Casabella? A+U?

[Jeff Myers]

Checked Progressive Architecture as well,1966. I should have gone with 1967 Architectural Record, Architectural Forum instead of 1966. I will check it out next tuesday to see if it is in there.

[DRN]

The following is a link to a National Park Service website with a 5 page essay detailing the development, design, construction, and history of the visitor's center in Estes Park, CO designed by TAA. It includes pictures and some drawings as well.

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/onli ... k/vc5a.htm

I stumbled across this during a search for information on Neutra's now threatened Gettysburg visitor's center near my former home in PA. There is a link to it in the left margin as well as Anshen and Allen's Dino Park visitor's center.

[Jeff Myers]

Thanks DRN for the link. From the little photos I have seen of this building I thought it was a small building. Glad to see a plan and some photos of the building in the link.
I will look while I am at work on thursday to see what I can find.

Jeff

[Roderick Grant]

Glad to see drawings. It's not only a handsome building from the exterior, it's also very well laid out. Casey did a first class job. This is a major contribution.

[DavidC]

Thanks, DRN. I very much enjoyed reading the information.


ALL - where can we see other examples of Mr. Casey's work?


David

[SDR]

Well. . .! That is surely one of the most complete accounts of the design, construction, finishing, furnishing, alteration and upkeep of a building that I have encountered ! Thanks, DRN.


This paragraph would be of interest to those looking for still other Wrightian architects:

At the height of excitement over the Headquarters in the fall of 1966, architect Victor Hornbein met with the superintendent to discuss preliminary drawings for the new West Side Administration Building. Although superintendent's reports indicate that Hornbein's plans were approved and even admired, the extant facility (later named the Kawuneeche Visitor Center) appears to have been designed by the Park Service's San Francisco Planning and Service Center. It is unclear whether or not collaboration took place, but Hornbein's name never appears on the final drawings. In any case, the Park Service was intrigued by Hornbein's preliminary designs, and, perhaps, by the Wrightian aspect of his work. A Denver native, Hornbein was an advocate of Wright's principles and had written about his architecture. His work in the Denver area includes two buildings that exemplify a Wrightian range of design—the Frederick R. Ross Branch Library (1951) and the Boettcher Conservatory at Denver Botanic Gardens (1964 ). The library emphasizes horizontal lines in a colorful mixture of brick and glass, while the conservatory is a bubble of seemingly woven concrete that manages to appear appropriate in its garden setting. Having made a reputation for himself with local buildings, and a recent splash at the botanic garden, Hornbein was an exciting choice as architect of the park's final Mission 66 structure.

[Roderick Grant]

A book about Taliesin "graduates," if they can be called that, is "A Taliesin Legacy, The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright's Apprentices" by Tobias S. Guggenheimer (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1995, 256 pp). It includes such far-flung locales as New Dehli, India (Raja Aederi, Hotel Le Meridian, 1982), Musashi-Ranzan, Japan (Taro Amano, Country Club, 1961), Sandwich, MA (Grattan Gill, Private Residence, 1980), Milan, Italy (Bruno Morassutti, Apartment House, 1964), Oracle, AZ (Phil Hawes, Bioshpere 2, 1991), Bombay (Mumbai, now), India (Nari Ghandi, Sudaben Residence) to Meiringen, Switzerland (Ernst Anderegg, Top-Of-Europe Mountain House, 1987). It is far from complete, and Tom Casey's submission is Desert Palms Presbyterian Church (Sun City West, AZ 1986), not the park building. But he did write the introduction.

[JimM]

Thanks, DRN. I very much enjoyed reading the information.
ALL - where can we see other examples of Mr. Casey's work?David

Casey's own house on the grounds of TW has been shown on prior threads, but I was unsuccessful finding a link. It looked somewhat like a 2-story version of the Kaufman Boulder House. The huge curved roof was interesting in that he used engineered wood I-beams in a way not typically seen; and very $$$$.

I didn't care for the desert masonry balconies; even if/when they were used by Frank.

[Roderick Grant]

That's not Casey's house; it's David Dodge's. Tom didn't have that kind of money.

[SDR]

http://tinyurl.com/26vs4qh

Several photos here, and some Taliesin shelters too.


SDR