Afton Alps Activity and Rejuvenation Center

This project is a competition entry. The charge was to design an activity and rejuvenation center sited at Afton Alps State Park in Minnesota, a destination known for its summertime camping, hiking and swimming as well as its wintertime downhill and cross-country skiing. The park is characterized by rolling hills and river bluffs. The nature-inspired proposal suggests binding the project into one of the hillsides, allowing the architecture to slowly step downward with the terrain. The body of an insect pupae and the artwork of Earnst Haeckel, an evolutionary biologist who lived at the end of the 18th and beginning of 19th centuries influenced the project.