Portraying the Forest Service Image—Applying the Built Environment Image Guide to Administrative Sites
Site Design Theme
Form (including scale and massing), line, color, and texture are the basic elements of design. These elements can be incorporated to produce a structure that announces its presence boldly, compliments its surroundings, is bland and uninteresting, or is anything in between. Forest Service structures are required to harmonize with their environment. Because national forests and grasslands vary so greatly, the buildings that support work on these lands also must vary.
The BEIG recognizes eight general ecological/cultural provinces in the United States. Buildings in each province must have distinct visual and structural characteristics so that they work well and look like they belong in their settings (figure 6). The province boundaries are shown in figure 7 and at the beginning of part 2 of chapter 4 of the BEIG, on page 52. The map can be viewed online at /recreation/programs/beig/40_chapter4_pts.pdf (5.8 MB). Chapter 4 of the BEIG also defines appropriate architectural character in each of the provinces.
Figure 6—This series of renderings illustrates how the same
bunkhouse floor plan can be constructed with facades that conform
to design guidance for different provinces. The top rendering shows
the horizontal massing, narrow vertical lines, and grassy color appropriate
for the Great Plains province. The middle rendering shows how shade
structures, a less prominent roof, and adobe materials help the building
blend with the desert environment. The bottom rendering shows the steep,
prominent roof and visible heavy timber structure appropriate to
the North Pacific province.
Figure 7—This map shows the general boundaries of the eight BEIG provinces.
In many cases, the general principles for each province are adequate to guide structure design or renovation for a specific site within the province. In other cases, more specific design themes should be developed based on the province theme. Site or unit design themes generally are appropriate for designated areas such as national recreation areas, national volcanic monuments, other special management areas, or places where the environment is not typical of the province or unit.
For example, the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland are located in northcentral Colorado, spanning the boundary of the Rocky Mountain province and the semiarid western edge of the Great Plains/Prairie province. Separate architectural design standards were developed for the grassland and for the forests. You can view the Architectural Design Standards for the Pawnee National Grassland at http://fsweb.wo.fs.fed.us/eng/facilities/pawnee.htm.
The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie is also within the Great Plains/Prairie province, but is on the lush, eastern edge of the plains. The thematic design guidelines for the Midewin, a former military site, are different than those of the Pawnee. The Midewin is primarily tallgrass prairie at the edge of the Chicago urban area, while the Pawnee is a shortgrass prairie in a sparsely populated rural area about 60 miles from the Rocky Mountains. You can view information about the Midewin Thematic Design Guidelines at http://fsweb.wo.fs.fed.us/eng/programs/facilities/ppt_html/midewin/
Some units have included information from the BEIG or their unit's architectural thematic design guidelines into their land resource management plans. This action formally incorporates built environment guidance into the document that steers resource management on the unit and ensures that the built environment will be considered as carefully as other resources. The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Plan, available at http://fsweb.midewin.r9.fs.fed.us/special/planning/PRAIRIE PLAN.pdf (25.7 MB), incorporates this guidance. Sections 2.7, 3.3, 4.2.5, and 4.4.2 contain language concerning architectural thematic guidelines. Unit plans completed under the new planning rules will need different wording because the new plans focus more on vision than prescription.
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