Willow Beach Ranger Station, Willow Beach Access Road, Kingman

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS az-220. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Willow Beach Access Road near Lake Mohave on the east (Arizona) bank of the Colorado River 11 miles south of Hoover Dam, approximately 3.5 miles kilometers) west off US 93 from milepost within Lake Mead National Recreation Area (LAME), Mohave County, Arizona. UTM: Zone 11, Easting Northing (NAD27) "Willow Beach [AZ, quadrangle, Present Owner/ Occupant: National Park Service, Lake Mead National Recreation Area (LAME NRA)

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS az-220. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Willow Beach Ranger Station is an intact Mission 66-era facility that exhibits the character defining features of a secondary visitor center as defined in Sara Allaback's Mission 66 Visitor Center Study, and of the ranger station prope1iy type as defined in the Draft Multiple Prope1iy Documentation fonn for PWR Mission 66 Resources.

1 The building and designed landscape embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, and method of construction consistent with modern architectural and landscape design and form, as detailed in the Draft MPD Historic Context "Mission 66 and Modernism architecture and landscape design in the Pacific West Region: This prope1iy is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places at the state level of significance under Criteria A and C in the areas of Architecture, Conservation, Entertaimnent/Recreation, Landscape Architecture, and Politics/Government. As an exceptional example of the type with a high degree of integrity, the Willow Beach Ranger Station meets Criteria G for prope1iies that have achieved significance within the past 50 years. 2

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS az-220. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The anticipated NPS/LAME project "Redevelop Visitor Facilities and Install Flash Flood Hazard Protection for Visitor Safety - Willow Beach," includes a provision to demolish the Ranger Station by This project is included in the parks' General Management Plan and is funded under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA) Program. It implements the Development Concept Plan, part of an Environmental Impact Statement 1 Allaback Jackson-Retondo and Warner 2 Jackson-Retondo and Warner 44, Sherfy and Luce WILLOW BEACH RANGER STA TION HABS AZ-220 (Page 2) appended to the for Willow Beach issued in A new maintenance facility, to replace the active (in functions in the Ranger Station, will be constrncted in Willow Beach Wash near the present water treatment plant.

3 The NPS Denver Service Center commissioned HABS Level II documentation of the Willow Beach Ranger Station in anticipation of this demolition, and in deference to the NRHP-eligible implication of the Multiple Prope11y Documentation Fo1m for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region Mission 66 resources.

4 Guided by DSC Project Manager Richard Marshall and DSC Cultural Resource Compliance Specialist Greg Cody, and with assistance from LAME Archeologist Steve Daron, project historian James Steely visited and photographed the building and landscape on August Steely is Secretary of the Interior's Standards-qualified in the disciplines of hist01y and architectural histo1y with SWCA Enviromnental Consultants, Phoenix Office, sub-consulting to DHM Design, holders of an NPS IDIQ (Indefinite Delive1y, Indefinite Quantity) contract with NPS Intennountain Region and DSC

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS az-220. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

James W. Steely, MSAS, Senior Historical Consultant at SWCA Enviromnental Consultants, Pheonix, sub-consulting to DHM Design, Denver. 6 August 29 Febrnmy Physical History: The Basin and Range Province of dese11 landscape in Nevada and Arizona is traversed by the Colorado River (Lake Mohave), and US Highway 93 for modern access to Willow Beach at a pronounced bend in the river about 11 miles below Hoover Dam. The desolate ten-ain exhibits the "banded, contorted, many-toned rocks that register repeated episodes of bending, breaking, and pm1ial melting through the Precambrian time. "5 Within this geological conglomerate environment, a number of deeply eroded washes converge from the east banks of the Colorado into Willow Beach.

About em1h-moving crews threaded a winding road (Willow Beach Access Road) west from US 93 through a series of shallow canyons or washes to provide public access to Willow Beach harbor and recreation amenities at the west end of access road. The entry point to the Willow Beach Developed Area, like the other developed areas at LAME NRA, was to be demarcated by a Ranger Info1mation Station. Here in contractors completed the Willow Beach Ranger Station and Maintenance Building to signal the motoring visitor's arrival at the developed area. Designers sited the ranger station wing of the building to address the access road, from which visitors originally encountered info1mation, comfo11 stations, and an opportunity to meet a ranger on duty.

The utility wing of the building sits at a right angle to the ranger station and is barely visible from the access road. The adjoining maintenance area is screened both by the ranger station and an extensive concrete masomy unit (CMU) planter box and concrete masomy wall feature that steps 3 Cody 4 Jackson-Retondo and Warner 5 Chronic WILLOW BEACH RANGER STATION HABS AZ-220 (Page 3) down along the site. This feature also screens a long wide bituminous paved maintenance area. The n01ihwest reentrant angle of the wings defines the maintenance yard screened from public view by its lower .. level, by the wing wall extending west from the public entry, and by an abrupt rocky bluff immediately n01ih of the composition.

The low one-story L-shaped building is constructed of single-wythe CMU bearing walls laid in a stack bond pattern, and steel beams with a flat metal deck and built-up roof system. Inside, a split-level poured-concrete floor system is defined by the exterior walls primarily of CMUs, supp01ied by spread-foot foundations. Interior pmiitions in the ranger station wing are of stud frames and drywall. Floors are carpeted and ceilings are painted d1ywall, while restroom and utility floors are exposed concrete. Light fixtures are generally fluorescent tubes throughout. The ranger office is connected on the interior with the information room, but its exterior access is to the n01ih onto a small concrete porch with tubular metal railing leading down four concrete steps into the maintenance yard.

The front (south elevation) of the building is visually and spatially integrated to the topography of the surrounding landscape by the CMU planters and stepped walls. The nan-ow rectangular ranger station wing is oriented east-west and measures approximately 4 long and 18' wide (all room names and U.S. customary units from Newcomb The interior of this wing is divided into 2 distinct areas. The largest area contains a relatively sizeable visitor information area; a partition separates a small ranger's office from the lobby. The balance, an area less than a third of the wing at the no1ih end of the building, encloses men's and women's restrooms. The south wall facing the road consists primarily of floor to ceiling glazing.

Judicious use of a window module creates a local symmetry that relates to the interior of each space, yet results in a somewhat irregular and asymmetrical fenestration pattern on the exterior. The metal frame windows were originally a combination of louvered (or jalousie) and fixed glazing. The inegularity and asymmetry are skillfully unified by a 5'-wide covered porch that runs the length of the building, and two long screens. Each screen is constructed of concrete masoruy units laid with the cavities exposed and in a stack bond pattern, resulting in a concrete lattice screen. Each screen is framed by an exposed painted steel I-section column on each side. The two screens are placed with a 12'-wide space between them.

This opening reveals one expanse of regularly spaced windows on the elevation. An exposed I beam, with rectangular web cutouts at each end, spans across the screens and supp01is the outside edge of the roof that covers the porch. Access to the porch, information lobby, and the restrooms is provided at either end of the screens. The n01ih-south maintenance utility leg of the building is constructed in the same manner as the ranger station wing of the building, although with a more utilitarian expression. Casement windows and solid doors are in painted steel frames.

The wing is about 27 feet deep, enclosing (south to n01ih) a "multi-shop" workroom with exterior access into the maintenance yard and interior doorways into the toilet, the storage room, and the tool room; a flammable storage room with exterior access from the yard; and a service equipment two-vehicle garage with a 17-foot- wide rollup door facing west onto the maintenance yard. Interior surfaces are painted CMUs and partition drywall.

WILLOW BEACH RANGER STATION HABS AZ-220 (Page 4) Character-defining features are encompassed within "the Mission 66 planning principle of creating discrete functional zones" resulting in: automobile access and parking; a small public space adjacent to the ranger office; exterior-access comfort stations; and attached utility garage and maintenance yard concealed from the public.

The "established elements of modern design" (see Historical Context below) are arranged in a low-profile composition with strong horizontal lines, assembled through the raised concrete foundation, steps, and integral planter boxes; shallow roof line with extended metal roof I beams at the porch ( each beam terminating in a distinctive cutout of the web); CMUs with colored add-mixture, to blend with the smrnunding desert landscape; and large floor-to-ceiling plate-glass windows lighting the infonnation room and the ranger office. The "Equipment Storage Building" 6 wing of the ensemble positions the facility's maintenance area "behind and down from the ranger station ...

away from public view and direct access." In concert with characteristics of setting for the ranger station's public presentation, "the natural topography, landscape and building design were used to conceal the utility area from public view and access. "7 . The natural topography provides transit for the Willow Beach Access Road and space for the Ranger Station in this large wash, or shallow canyon, about 156 feet (48 meters) wide and about 25 feet (8 m) deep. Some excavation of the flanking bluffs was necessary to accommodate the road on the south side of the canyon and the building on the north side.

A low retaining wall of red-colored add-mixture CMUs, matching the building, begins about 525 feet m) east of the building and winds westerly along the serpentine road, defining a cmTent overflow-parking area and buttressing underground water and wastewater utilities. The retaining wall continues west from the building about 200 feet (60 m) parallel to the (34 m) wing wall that masks the maintenance yard. Plantings in the designed landscape include native ironwoods and acacias, and introduced oleanders and palms. A pair of mature Mexican ( or possibly California) fan palms at the southeast corner of the Ranger Station provides a dramatic ve1iical element to balance the strong horizontal lines of the building and hardscape.

Unfotiunately, Willow Beach planners sited the Ranger Station within trajectories of its shallow canyon's washes. Flash flooding and visitor deaths nearby sealed the facility's unintended fate during a storm. The public still obtained visitor information from the building's information room through but completion that year of the pre-engineered Fire Station/Ranger Office shifted infonnation services to the new metal building at Willow Beach Harbor. 8 Despite abandomnent of the public functions, and recent re-grading of the road and parking lot that apparently removed the original flagpole, the Willow Beach Ranger Station and its associated landscape exhibit high levels of integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, setting, and association.

Historical Context: In the as a result of the Franklin Roosevelt Administration's New Deal, the National Park Service ballooned from a small bureau managing mostly western national parks into a huge 6 Newcomb 7 Jackson-Retondo and Warner 33, 8 Turnbull Cody Daron WILLOW BEACH RANGER STA TION HABS AZ-220 (Page 5) employer with the nationwide assignment of setting scenic, recreation, and commemorative standards at national, state, and local park facilities. During the decade, NPS was celebrated for its signature application of what is now called Rustic" style to buildings, strnctures, and landscapes, not only in national parks but through its assistance to state and local parks as well, primarily utilizing Civilian Conservation Corps labor.

9 In after completion of Boulder (later Hoove1) Dam on the Colorado River, NPS and the water-managing Bureau of Reclamation signed a precedent-setting agreement for the Park Service to develop and manage the dam's Lake Mead shoreline as the first "national recreation area." The U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and Arizona State Highway Depmiment completed U.S. Highway 93 for dam access from and to Kingman by 10 NPS directed initial CCC improvements at the new lake's Boulder Beach District, Nevada, in but after World War II postponed comprehensive recreation development along the lake in Arizona and Nevada for more than a decade.

11 From about to as a result of World War II and its complex political and economic aftennath, Congress made very little funding available for existing or new facilities in national park units. During this same period in contrast, annual national park system visitation increased from 17 million to 54 million nationwide. Existing facilities deteriorated at a rapid rate, despite the unprecedented New Deal construction program of the and suffered from overnse, economic neglect, and inadequate capacity. 12 Lake Mead joined a number of national parks in Arizona and California that absorbed huge numbers of visitors within a day's drive from the booming population centers of Phoenix and Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, in the Trnman Administration facilitated the name change of Boulder Dam to Hoover Dam, and the associated renaming of Boulder Dam Recreation Area to Lake Mead National Recreation Area,jointly managed by NPS and the Bureau of Reclamation. In the Bureau of Reclamation completed Davis Dam on the Colorado River 67 miles kilometers) south of Hoover Dam, creating 44- 2 square-mile (71 km) Lake Mohave immediately downstream of the dam and Lake Mead. Congress then expanded the national recreation area to include both banks of the river (now Lake Mohave) between Hoover and Davis Dams, including the Willow Beach landing and harbor on the east bank in Arizona.

13 NPS Director Comad Wi1ih conceived the Mission 66 program in responding both to the deterioration of park infrastructure as well as the ever-increasing "auto mobility" 14 and prosperity of the American public. Enacted by Congress and signed by President Dwight Eisenhower in Mission 66 projected a 10-year, billion-dollar development program to upgrade facilities in all national park units by the anniversary of the National Park Service. 15 NPS planners focused considerable Mission 66 attention on the sprawling national recreation area on Lakes Mead and Mohave, by including "water and power system improvements at Willow Beach." 16 9 Carr 10 Bruder 60.

11 12 Carr 13 14 Jackson-Retondo and Warner 15 NPS 16 Jackson-Retondo and Warner WILLOW BEACH RANGER STATION HABS AZ-220 (Page 6) Ranger stations constrncted for Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and throughout the NPS Pacific West Region, during the Mission 66 era also functioned as "secondary visitor centers" for far-flung developed areas. These ranger stations, while smaller in scale than primary visitor centers, served a public-information function, as clear expressions of the operational, design, and planning principles of the Mission 66 program. Unlike many pre-World War II ranger shelters, often built in back country, the Mission 66-era ranger station stood prominently at the entrance point of a developed area, highly visible from and easily accessible by automobiles.

The scale of these facilities and their limited parking areas positioned ranger stations as quick stopping points for motorists, for their initial point of contact and orientation within developed areas. As a result, Mission 66 ranger stations served important progrmmnatic roles by providing visitor infonnation plus restroom and water services, in addition to their official park-unit presence and control, in remote developed areas of the National Park Service. 17 After completion of the Willow Beach Ranger Station in motoring visitors emerging from miles and miles of rough desert scenery may have arrived with the sudden impression of visiting the sleek modern home of a wealthy recluse.

But few Lake Mohave patrons in the would recognize this Ranger Station as a refined architectural statement deeply rooted in European Modernism, specifically avant-garde compositions from the and of architects Richard Neutra (e.g. Lovell Heath House, Los Angeles, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (e.g. Ge1many's exhibit at the Barcelona Exhibition, Spain, le Corbusier (e.g. Madame De Mandrot House, France, and others. 18 These modernists' prototype "boxes" (also pitched as "machines to live in"), void of "ornament" but textured with "organic" masonry and geometric steel frames, captured the adoration of a number of American architects before World War II, and virtually all young architecture students throughout three decades after the war.

19 Thus Mission 66 designs, including signature NPS commissions by N eutra and other noted modernists, followed contemporary American Modernism as part of the nation's embrace of its mid-century European immigrants (and in turn, these pilgrims' earlier recognition of American modernist works by Frank Lloyd Wright and others).

20 "Mission 66 architects (whether in-house or consultants)," writes landscape historian Ethan Carr in comparing pre-war NPS Rustic with post-war National Park Modern styles, "employed free plans, flat roofs, and other established elements of modern design " The architects also used concrete construction and prefabricated components [E]arthtoned colors, and low, horizontal massing also helped continue the Rustic] tradition ofreducing visual contrasts between building and site. Mission 66 architecture was not picturesque or rustic, but it did "hannonize" with its setting (at least in more successful examples), although in a new way.21 17 Ibid 18 Frampton Jordy Hitchcock and Johnson: reprint]:182-183.

19 Jordy 20 Allaback 21 Carr WILLOW BEACH RANGER STATION HABSAZ-220 (Page 7) Le Corbusier particularly inspired the use of local materials with his innovation of structural slab walls of native stone, 22 reflected 33 years later at Willow Beach through its reddish colored add- mixture concrete blocks that blend with the smrnunding natural outcrops. And Mies van der Rohe, who immigrated to the United States in 193 7, elevated the structural steel I beam to the status of ornament through his well-publicized redevelopment of Annour Institute (later named Illinois Institute of Technology) in Chicago. 23 At Willow Beach, hidden I beams atop the CMU walls supp011 the roof system, and exposed I beam columns frame the square CMUs of the porch screen.

Four visible horizontal I beam roof joists, suppo11ing the partly cantilevered porch roof, dramatically convey Mies's "idealization of the I beam" 24 with cutout webs extending about 20 inches beyond the porch canopy. 25 The NPS Western Office of Design and Construction (WODC) in San Francisco likely supervised design of the Willow Beach Ranger Station. Its construction drawings were signed by "Newcomb" for the "Southwest Region", 26 but likely originated from WODC.

NPS architect Robe11 Newcomb worked at WODC in he transferred with the closing of WODC to the Denver Service Center as Chief Architect in 27 Sarah Allaback, architectural historian and pioneer chronicler of Mission 66, describes the WODC shop and credits much of the "zeitgeist" of NPS design during Mission 66 to veteran architect Cecil Doty. When Cecil Doty began his career with the Park Service in the early adobe, boulders, and hand-hewn timber were the basic materials for park buildings As an architect for ... (WODC) in Doty would find himself accommodating Park Service needs with modem buildings of steel, glass and concrete block.

28 Additional research on the Willow Beach Ranger Station would determine more on the background of Robe11 Newcomb and his design career and influences, whether directly from Doty, from a modernist architectural education, or both. Fmther study might also identify the building's and landscape's contractor, who deserves much credit for assembling a compact masterwork and its infrastructure in an extremely remote location. 22 Jordy 23 Frampton 24 Frampton 25 Newcomb 26 Newcomb 27 Wheaton 28 Allaback WILLOW BEACH RANGER STATION HABS AZ-220 (Page 8) Sources of Information: Allaback, Sarah "The Mission 66 Visitor Center." Vol. 22. No. 9 Electronic document: Accessed 24 August 24 August Allaback, Sarah Mission 66 Visitor Centers: The Histo,y of a Building Type. U.S. Depmiment of the Interior.

National Park Service. Park Historic Strnctures and Cultural Landscapes Program. Washington, Bruder, J. Simon "A Cultural Resource Survey for the Proposed Improvement of the United States Route 93, Between Mileposts 2.4 and South of the Hoover Dam, Mohave County, Arizona." Cultural Resources Rep01i O1-486: 1. Prepared for Arizona Depmiment of Transp01iation. Eco Plan Associated, Inc. Mesa, Arizona. Can-, Ethan "Mission 66 and 'Rustication'." Vol. 22. No. 9. Electronic document: Accessed 21 August Carr, Ethan Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma. University of Massachusetts Press. Amherst. Chronic, Halka Roadside Geology ofArizona. Mountain Press Publishing Company. Missoula.

Cody, Greg eMail co1Tespondence from the DSC Historian/Compliance Specialist to the project historian. 4 September Copy at LAME. Daron, Steve eMail co1Tespondence from the LAMS Archeologist to the project historian. 17 September Copy at LAME. Frampton, Kenneth Modern Architecture: A Critical History. Thames and Hudson London Hitchcock, Hemy-Russell, and Philip Johnson The International Style. reprint. No1ion & Company, Inc. New York. Jackson-Retondo, Elaine, and Len Warner "Pacific West Region Mission 66 Resources." Draft document. National Register of Historic Places, Multiple Property Documentation Pacific West Region. Oakland, California. WILLOW BEACH RANGER STATION HABS AZ-220 (Page 9) Jordy, William H.

American Buildings and Their Architects: The Impact of European Modernism in the Mid-Twentieth Centwy. Anchor Books. Garden City, New York. Luellen, Mark "Willow Beach Ranger Office and Utility Building (Building 321 ). " Arizona Historic Prope1iy Inventory Fonn. One file and LAME. National Park Service "National Park Service, Mission 66 In Action: Development of Lake Mead National Recreation Area: Case Study." Unpublished manuscript on file at Denver Service Center. National Park Service. National Park Service "Mission 66 National Park Service History Collection Electronic document: Accessioned 22 August National Park Service. Harpers Ferry Center. Newcomb, Robert "Ranger Office & Equipment Storage Building." U.S. Depmiment oflnterior. National Park Service. Branch of Architecture.

Southwest Region [likely drawn at WODC San Francisco]. Six sheets of architectural drawings on file at DSC and LAME. Also available at http://etk.nps.gov. Rothman, Hal References without citations in NPS staff could not find the source of these quotes during the course of this project. Rothman died in Febrnary at age 48. Sellers, Richard West Preserving Nature in the National Parks. Yale University Press. New Haven & London. Sherfy, Marcella, and W. Ray Luce Guidelines for Evaluating and Nominating Properties that Have Achieved Significance Within the Past 50 Years. National Register Bulletin. U.S. Depmiment of Interior. National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places.

Washington, Electronic document: Accessed 23 August Turnbull, George Letter from NPS Superintendent, Pacific Great Basin Supp01i Office, to Jim Ganison, Arizona State Historic Preservation Officer. 25 July Oakland. One file at LAME. WILLOW BEACH RANGER STATION HABS AZ-220 (Page 10) Wheaton, Rodd eMail c01Tespondence from the retired NPS Intennountain Region Chief of Cultural Resources with the project historian. 26 September Wheaton contacted John Ronscavage, landscape architect at for additional infonnation on Newcomb. Copy at LAME. Willow Beach Ranger Station HABS No. AZ-220 . t (Page .9J It Willow Beach Ranger Station HABS No. AZ-220 (Page \ l ~; ii t I 1 t ~ [) :~ didlh ' I 1It~ir n Willow Beach Ranger Station HABS No. AZ-220 (Page Willow Beach Ranger Station HABS No.

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