Homes on the Range

The Canyon at Cal Poly

A garden of experimental buildings at Cal Poly

The College of Architecture and Environmental Design at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo dedicates itself to producing students who will easily slip into the practical world where buildings have to be built well, but within a set timeframe, code and budget. Through hands-on teaching methods, students are required to actually build structures themselves. The final result: architects who can both dream and make reality.

The school refers to their teaching style as "learning-by-doing." And does it work? You bet! According to the November, 2002 Design Intelligence report (www.DI.net) which ranks the country’s best architecture programs as ranked by the principals of 150 top U.S architecture firms, Cal Poly students were ranked #2 in the nation next to Harvard.

The University granted the architecture department nine acres of land previously used by the agricultural department in 1963. This marked the birth of is known as the Poly Canyon, a collection of experimental structures built as class projects. "The Canyon is now a small village with many kinds of experimental buildings where cows walk around."

The Canyon is a garden of architecture, inspiring the visitor to consider various structural theories. The lessons are obvious and the examples are distinctive and intriguing. The following are some descriptions of various structures:

•    Bridge House (1968). The Bridge House was awarded the American Institute of Steel Construction's Award of Excellence. The original concept of the design was to build on an adverse site while minimally disturbing the terrain by spanning a 70 foot ravine. This structure uses a low alloy steel which requires no protective coating. Kaiser donated this new "weathering steel" to Cal Poly. The important mid-century architect Craig Elwood was a design consultant for this structure.

One sculpture is in the shape of a big stylized banana tree. We found the cows like to use it to scratch their necks!" explains Hans Mager.

Each year a new structure is added. This year a "Tensile Structure" will be added that will serve as a visitor and community center. Made of "wire rope” and PVC-coated polyester fabric pulled taut by turnbuckles, the graceful new tensile structure is an interdisciplinary project between three senior students from environmental design, architecture and landscape architecture. "Tensile structures appeal to me because the entire shape is dictated by structural concerns, but at the same time they make very beautiful architecture. Every piece is structural, yet it is important to make the structural look as beautiful as possible," explains Keiran Kelly-Sneed.

For more information go to www.CalPoly.edu/~arch/.

•    Prestressed concrete flower (1964). The concrete flower was one of the first structures built in the canyon. The technology demonstrated is a post-tensioned curved concrete shape. At the time, industry experts theorized that applying tension to a support cable inside of a curved concrete shape would break the figure. While some portions did break, many held their shape, proving the experts wrong.

•    Concrete Stress-Reversal Shell (or "Mushroom") House (1975). This building was built by the following process: A tower stood up inside the structure. Cables were strung up to the tower from the footings on the main dome and from beyond the portions of the dome that cantilever out. Gunite concrete was sprayed onto the cables. Once the concrete was cured, the cables not covered were cut and the dome was secured. The form of the handkerchief dome stood alone for many years until it was made into the house it is today.