Lookout Studio

Mary Jane Colter Buildings (Hopi House, The Lookout, Hermit's Rest, Phantom Ranch, the Desert View Watchtower, Bright Angel Lodge, and two employee dorms)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Lookout Studio, 2017
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Location	Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Coordinates	36°3′28.28″N 112°8′38.33″W
Built	1914
Architect	Mary Colter
NRHP reference No.	87001436 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 28, 1987
Designated NHL	May 28, 1987[2]

Lookout Studio, known also as The Lookout, is a stone building located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, within Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. It is part of the Grand Canyon Village Historic District, and is part of the Mary Jane Colter Buildings National Historic Landmark. It currently operates as a gift shop and observation station for visitors, with telescopes on its outdoor terrace. Lookout Studio was constructed by the Santa Fe Railway in 1914 and was established as a photography studio to compete with Kolb Studio. It is one of six buildings at the Grand Canyon that were designed by architect Mary Colter, along with Bright Angel Lodge, Hermit's Rest, Hopi House, Phantom Ranch, and Desert View Watchtower. Lookout Studio employs her signature rustic style of using jagged native rocks to imitate indigenous structures of the region and to blend in with the environment.^[3]

Side view of the Lookout Studio showing the multiple levels, faux ruins appearance, and banks of windows.

The rubble stone building is at the edge of the canyon. The walls rise to an irregular parapet which incorporates the building's chimneys. Before a roof replacement the roof carried a pile of stones designed to look like they had fallen into ruin.^[4] The lookout is on three levels, with a main level housing a shop and enclosed viewing area, a lower viewing platform and a small enclosed observation tower. The wood viga roof structure remains visible, although the structure has undergone other renovations.^[3] The lookout is unusually brightly lighted for a Colter building, since its interior receives a great deal of light through its banks of large windows.^[4]

Historic designation

Lookout Studio is a component of the multi-site Mary Jane Colter Buildings National Historic Landmark, It was incorporated into the National Historic Landmark group on May 28, 1987.^[2][1] Hopi House and the Lookout Studio are also major contributing structures in the Grand Canyon Village National Historic Landmark District.^[5]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
2. "Mary Jane Colter Buildings". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. September 25, 2007. Archived from the original on February 25, 2013.
3. Harrison, Laura Soulliere (1986). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form: M.E.J. Colter Buildings". National Park Service. p. continuation page 4. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
4. Kaiser, Harvey H. (1997). Landmarks in the Landscape: Historic Architecture in the National Parks of the West. Chronicle Books. p. 221. ISBN 0-8118-1854-3.
5. Chappell, Gordon (May 10, 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form: Grand Canyon Village Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved November 17, 2011.

External links

• National Park Service historic photos of Lookout Studio
• M.E.J. Colter Buildings, Architecture in the Parks