Timberline Lodge to replace its funny nose
Monday, March 8, 2004 8:00 AM PST
By Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleGOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. (AP) -- Since it was built during the Depression era, Timberline Lodge has impressed as a masterpiece of lodge architecture.
But for nine months of the year, the WPA-built, National Historic Landmark is like a noble face wearing a funny nose: the corrugated steel Quonset hut that serves as the snow entrance.
The lack of a proper snow entrance at the nation's only year-round ski resort apparently was an oversight by the original six-member U.S. Forest Service architectural team.
The lodge's steward of aesthetics, the Friends of Timberline Lodge, decided it was time for the hut to finally go.
In February, longtime member Tom Johnson organized an architectural competition for a new snow entrance. Last week, the Friends announced the winner: a snow entrance that will look like a snowdrift.
Conceived by two of Portland's more dynamic designers -- Peter Nylen and Ean Eldred of NE Works -- the entrance promises a blend of beauty, fun and sophistication. The entrance will be built out of computer-cut curves of aluminum channels supporting a double skin of translucent, high-strength Lexan plastic.
The wavy, 20-foot-high parabolic arches promise the eerie translucency of a snow cave with the airiness of a Gothic cathedral. Made of 30-inch sections that will be bolted together, the curvilinear entrance will recall the layering of the mountain's glaciers and the lines of a topographic map, while lending its lightweight parts to quick and easy assembly.
The competition was for concepts only. Now, all Nylen and Eldred have to figure out is how much it will cost to build. The two are best known for their public artworks on Portland's Eastbank Esplanade, made when they were members of the now-disbanded collective Rigga. They've already figured out the engineering with the veteran firm John Parkinson Engineering.
Although Nylen says it's too early to guess at a budget, "we tried to be as economical with the materials as possible," he said.
For 29 years, the Friends group has raised the money for high-ticket items that lodge operator RLK and Company's annual fees to the Forest Service don't cover, such as restoring artworks, replacing custom-woven drapes and upholstery and creating guides to the building and art.
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