University of California Berkeley College of Environmental Design Architecture 100D Studio Spring Semester 2021 Instructor James Leng Email j amesleng1984 berkeley edu THE TOWER LOOKOUT Reorienting Being in the Fire Landscape Abridged Description Draft 2020 01 04 USDA Forest Service Standard Lookout Structural Plans 1938 The Lookout as Structure The fire lookout is an essentialized structure for the purpose of fire detection and monitoring and an important part of a larger strategy of wildfire management Lookouts are typically wood or steel construction consisting of a vertical tower structure as tall as 120 feet topped with a small 10 x 10 or 14 x 14 enclosed observation cabin Despite its simple assembly the lookout is a highly calibrated and compact space that enables the task of continuous surveillance upon the landscape The design studio will first and foremost situate the fire lookout as structural and historical typology Students will become intimately acquainted with the details within the USDA Forest Service s lookout design manuals Furthermore students will investigate its place in the broader lineage of observation towers which all share a purpose of enabling a specific gaze The infrastructural tower will be another point of precedence as the fire lookout partakes in a class of structures that entangles with the elemental environment the lighthouse navigates the windmill draws power and the watertower safe caches Collectively these first exercises will become the departure point for a new imaginary of the lookout The Lookout as Persona The lookout also refers to the individual tasked to spot fires in the wilderness and as such the space of the structure becomes a direct extension of this person s daily routine A lookout usually stays in their position for an entire fire season so the tower not only has to be a fully equipped workspace but it also has to function as a home for months at a time In this second exercise the studio will trace various memoirs and anecdotes of the life of a lookout and their embodied experiences Students will learn every minutiae of a lookout s daily activities and take stock of every object and space they need during their respective tenure The program will be derived from this investigation resulting in highly calibrated zones for living cooking eating bathing leisure and most importantly viewing The reflections motivations and at times the boredom terror or solitude of a lookout might begin to imbue the utilitarian structure with the sublime essence of a being in the landscape Fire Lookouts A Pictorial History Wayne Pease 2018 Looking Out as Reorientation To lookout is also a spatiotemporal action a projective anticipation of an uncertain future or even an imperative for caution lookout As such the fire lookout becomes a point of re orientation in regards to the relationship between architecture and humanity and technology and the environment In a sense to study the fire lookout is to look at the history of forest stewardship and fire management The fire lookout tower has been an important aspect of this process even before the inception of the US Department of Forest Service est 1905 At the height of their popularity between 1930 and 1950 there were over 5 000 towers across the United States However with the advent of aircraft monitoring satellite surveillance radio and cameras the manned lookout has become largely replaced by continually improving technologies rendering these iconic structures as an obsolete but symbolic relic of a bygone era Yet with the recent eruption of uncontrollable fires throughout the West Coast there is a renewed sense of urgency in reevaluating both the necessity of the lookout and the shortcomings of technology as well as the larger relationship between the built environment and the fire prone ecologies that we inhabit Needles Lookout Sequoia National Park Image Courtesy Buck Rock Foundation For the studio final project students will be asked to re design a fire lookout tower in California Prior to selecting a site the studio will also take stock of the various lookout typologies across the United States Ex the famous Aermotor LS 40 lookouts of the Addorondacks Catskills in New York The final project site will be selected from several existing sites of fire lookouts to intervene upon 1 Restoring upgrading the fire lookout on Sawmill Peak adjacent to the towns of Magalia and Paradise devastated by the 2018 Camp Fire 2 Rebuilding the Needles Lookout in Sequoia National Park which was destroyed in 2011 by an internal structural fire 3 Rebuilding of the Berryessa Peak Lookout which succumbed to a fire in 2004 in which the surrounding area of Lake Berryessa was again ravaged by the Hennessey Fire in 2020 In conjunction given the opportunity students will engage with speakers from Cal Fire The National Park Service and fire stricken community leaders in a series of informal virtual discussions Ultimately through a fluid sequence of research reading discussions and the design of a fire lookout the studio hopes to challenge the nature of living being and building in a world on the precipice of permanent ecological crisis