The recent restoration of Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park is the final chapter in a long research and development project to document, survey, assess and recommend conservation treatments by Weitzman Historic Preservation faculty and graduates. This week, that long process, realized by another Weitzman alum, will earn a Commercial Design Citation of Merit at the Knoll/Docomomo US Modernism in America Awards ceremony on November 2.
When it opened in 1955, critics and the public decried the Lodge as “the ugliest building in America”. The long, low concrete structure was one of the first modernist buildings to be built in a National Park and to accommodate the new automobile-bound visitor. The architect, Gilbert Stanley Underwood, reinterpreted national park “rustic” in a modernist idiom using raw fair-faced concrete set against molds made of sand-blasted plywood, leaving an impression of the woodgrain. He augmented the wood-like look of the abstract concrete surfaces with three layers of acid stains in bark colors, a method that came to be called “Shadowood.”
As in many modern buildings that were experimental by design, the stain did not stand the test of time—or the Wyoming climate. The original surface discolored and was over painted several times, concealing the original surface effects and years of damage and repairs.
From 2015 to 2017, three Preservation students completed theses re-examining this novel application technique for the acid stain. Julianne Wiesner-Chianese (MSHP’15), Alice Gilmore (MSHP’16), and Araba Prah (MSHP’17), all advised by Frank Matero, Gonick Family Professor of Historic Preservation, successively documented Underwood’s use of concrete and acid stain, tested novel approaches to accurately re-apply the stain using a mineral silicate coating, and evaluated the durability of this approach against increased weathering.
This led to the completion of an Historic Structure Report for the lodge, cabins, and grounds in Phase I. The team at the Center for Architectural Conservation was led by John Hinchman as project manager and included Wiesner-Chianese, Gilmore, Prah, Cesar Bargues Ballester (MSHP’15), Courtney Magill (MSHP’15), and Nityaa Iyer (MSHP’14) as post-graduate research associates. The group scoured historical drawings, photographs, and correspondence to document the history, construction, and current condition of the structures to inform the restoration. During Phase II, drawings and recommendations were prepared by the CAC through their NPS partners.
The current restoration effort has in turn been led by Weitzman alum Joshua Freedland (MSHP’99), Director of Historic Preservation at Bulley & Andrews, who oversaw the restoration work to the 75,000 square foot concrete exterior. “It is an encouraging and gratifying demonstration of how academically inspired research and field praxis can inform the execution of the best professional work that is now recognized by national organizations dedicated to the preservation of modernism” says Matero.
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