Clark Pacific Precast and USC School of Architecture in partnership with the National Park Service will design, engineer, fabricate, and install a prototype precast concrete restroom shelter that formally responds the sublime beauty of Joshua Tree National Park. The prototype is intended to last for more than 100 years, and will be of the highest standards of architecture, fabrication and construction. While the completed product will be a useful installation for the Park, the project includes additional goals of educating the participants and advancing the state-of-the-art at every stage. The project hopes to involve innovative design and engineering processes and tools, unique precast fabrication methods and construction materials, new documentation and communication strategies, and deeply collaborative techniques. Joshua Tree National Park is a pristine setting of sublime beauty and a sense of timelessness in belonging to the ages. Additions to the built environment at the Park will recognize the absolute primacy of the natural setting. All interventions in the National Park must be at the highest levels of design, technical, artistic, and construction achievement while meeting the apparently competing intentions of both spectacular and unobtrusive architecture. The new building at Joshua Tree National Park will elegantly respond to the extreme climate with an architecture of serenity, stability, and durability with a clear sense of belonging only to this place and may encourage park visitors to feel as though the building has always been there and always will be. "A stunning building that people might not notice." (By Doug Noble, USC)
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