Project Description
The “goos oLgi gowa“ (Pine Grove Gathering Place) is the center piece for a new 55 acre residential housing development currently under construction in the community of Chiloquin, Oregon. The development is nestled among Ponderosa pines near the intersection of South Chiloquin Road and Crater Lake Highway 62. The Pine Grove Gathering Place will provide a local community center and administrative offices for the housing development, as well as a gathering place and cultural center for the greater Klamath Tribes. Additionally, the facility is designed to provide an interpretive center for visitors traveling to Crater Lake (“giwaas”) – the spiritual center for The Klamath Tribes – and will also serve as a studio location for tribal artisans to teach, create, display, and sell their works.
This type of project requires special sensitivity and careful architectural response given the cultural importance it will represent for its owner The Klamath Tribes. The design was informed by doing extensive research into the history, building typology, and cultures of The Klamath Tribes. This information was then interpreted with contemporary materials and methods, and incorporated into the massing, patterns, and finishes of the structure. The facility is oriented on the true compass coordinates with the main Roundhouse entrance facing east as they were typically constructed. Historically the Roundhouses were partially sunken into the earth with only the upper portion of walls and the gently sloping conical roof visible above grade. In keeping with this tradition while accommodating Universal Design, the new Roundhouse is built into an earthen berm, merging with the landscape.
The facility incorporates the tribes’ historic Roundhouse lodge typology as the assembly space, articulated with a Longhouse lodge typology containing the commercial kitchen, offices, art studios, and interpretive functions. The project references historic and indigenous construction materials such as Lodgepole pine, Cedar, Douglas Fir, log and plank frame structure, and basalt boulder piers. The Roundhouse metaphorically and graphically represents Crater Lake with a stylized rendition of the iconic crater rendered with the integrally colored cork rubber floor covering system. Traditional Klamath Tribes’ basket weave patterns were interpreted into the log truss configurations.