Perched at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, the Lands End Lookout is designed to protect the beautiful and rugged coastline while making it more visible and accessible to visitors. Approached from above, the site appears to be an open field, with the building slowly revealing itself as visitors move through the dunes. The shifting concrete wall planes of the building stretch out to embrace the dunescape, evoking and expressing the evolution of the site and its vital and dynamic natural environment.

Many arrive along the wild, rocky Coastal Trail, which traverses the cliffs from Baker Beach to Lands End. Along the way, hikers pass hillsides of cypress and wildflowers, taking in views of old shipwrecks, and eventually descend the stairs to reach the epic ruins of the Sutro Baths.

Materials are rustic, echoing the residue and remains of what has been worn away and eroded by the unrelenting wind and water from the sea. Substantial markers in the entrance garden made of large rustic timbers are aptly named “dune screens” which mark the movement of shifting sand while serving as guideposts for visitors. Wood used for benches and to create the dune screens was harvested from Monterey Cypress culled through forestry management efforts in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

The rich planting covering the dunes was harvested from the local watershed and then cultivated in a nearby native plant nursery. Even the sand mixture used for planting is local—collected from construction sites around the city— to build a substrate for establishing plants in this fragile ecology.

Location: San Francisco, CA

Status: Completed 2012

Project Type: Park, Visitor Center

Client: Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, National Park Service

Collaborators: EHDD Architecture

Photography: Marion Brenner

Awards

ASLA Northern California Honor Award, 2016

Green Good Design Award, 2016

AIA San Francisco Honor Award, 2015

AIASF Design Energy + Sustainability Award, 2013