Herbert Maier

Herbert Maier was an American architect and public administrator, most notable as an architect for his work at Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks. Maier, as a consultant to the National Park Service, designed four trailside museums in Yellowstone, three of which survive as National Historic Landmarks. Maier played a significant role in the Park Service's use of the National Park Service Rustic style of architecture in western national parks.

Architecture

Maier was a native of San Francisco and a Berkeley graduate, who began a collaboration with Ansel F. Hall, a Park Service interpretation specialist, in 1921 by providing Hall with sketches for a museum that Hall had proposed in the Yosemite valley [Carr 1998, p. 142] . In 1923, Hall's project was funded by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial fund, and was completed to Maier's design in collaboration with landscape architect Thomas Chalmers Vint in 1925 [Carr 1998, p. 143] . This project was followed by an observation station at Yavapai Point on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in 1928, and the Bear Mountain museum in New York's Palisades Interstate Park the same year [Carr 1998, p. 143] . The three projects represented the first examples of park buildings as small museums intended to interpret their surroundings to park visitors.

At Yellowstone, the trailside museums evolved into a system of four buildings, again sponsored by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial fund. These four museums, opened from 1928 to 1931, interpreted the features found along the park's Grand Loop Road to passing visitors. All four museums employed a distinct style of rustic, natural materials used in a way that promoted an intimacy between the landscape and the structures.

Maier also worked closely with architects Gilbert Stanley Underwood and Mary Jane Colter as well as Thomas Vint on planning and architecture for the South Rim complex at Grand Canyon National Park.

Administration

Maier joined the Park Service as an administrator in 1933, where he became less personally involved with individual buildings and more involved in policy. Maier became an assistant regional director and was in a position to influence projects funded through the Park Service. In this way, Maier influenced the design of state park buildings by publishing pattern books based on his own work for use by the Civilian Conservation Corps in state park projects [Carr 1998, p. 282] . The CCC buildings at Bastrop State Park in Texas, now a National Historic Landmark district, were designed during this period.

Maier was among the first advocates within the Park Service for a National Seashore at Padre Island, Texas. [ [http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/pais/adhi3.htm Padre Island NS: Administrative History (Chapter 3) ] ] One of Maier's most significant efforts was the design and standardization of the distinctive Park Service "arrowhead" emblem, created under Maier's guidance and adopted Service-wide in 1952. [ [http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/workman1b/volf.htm National Park Service: Badges and Uniform Ornamentation (Ornamentation: Arrowhead Patch) ] ] Near the end of his career, Maier was instrumental in the creation and management of the Mission 66 facilities program.

Extant Work

*Fishing Bridge Museum and Amphitheater, Yellowstone National Park, 1930-31
*Fishing Bridge Naturalist's Residence, Yellowstone National Park, 1930
*Madison Museum, Yellowstone National Park, 1929
*Norris Museum, Yellowstone National Park, 1929
*Yavapai Point Museum, Grand Canyon National Park
*Lodge, Palo Duro State Park, Texas
*CCC Buildings, Bastrop State Park, Texas
*Refectory, Longhorn Caverns State Park, Texas
*Administration Building, South Mountain Park, Phoenix, Arizona
*Glacier Point Lookout, Yosemite National Park, 1925 [ [http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/mackintosh2/origins_nps_assumes_responsibility.htm Interpretation in the National Park Service: A Historical Perspective ] ]
*Yosemite Valley Museum, Yosemite National Park, 1926 [ [http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/mackintosh2/origins_nps_assumes_responsibility.htm Interpretation in the National Park Service: A Historical Perspective ] ]

Demolished Work

*Old Faithful Museum of Thermal Activity, demolished 1971

Notes

References

cite book
last = Carr
first = Ethan
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Mission 66:Modernism and the National Park Dilemma
publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
date = 2007
location =
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 1-55849-587-8
cite book
last = Carr
first = Ethan
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture & the National Park Service
publisher = University of Nebraska Press
date = 1998
location =
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0-8032-6383-X
cite book
last = Quinn
first = Ruth
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Weaver of Dreams: The Life and Architecture of Robert C. Reamer
publisher = Leslie & Ruth Quinn
date = 2004
location =
pages =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0-9760945-1-7

External References

* [http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/harrison/harrison20.htm National Park Service article on Yellowstone museums]
* [http://www.nps.gov/history/history/hisnps/NPSHistorians/wheaton.pdf Architecture of Yellowstone (pdf)]
* [http://www.hudsonrivervalley.com/images/uploaded_images/Architecture%20Brochure%20PDF%20final.pdf Architectural Traditions in the Hudson River Valley (pdf)]