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Intersecting Tracks

  • Title Board

    Intersecting Tracks
  • ALL Final Sheets 36x48_Page_2.jpg

    Intersecting Tracks
    Site Plan
  • ALL Final Sheets 36x48_Page_3.jpg

    Intersecting Tracks
    Track transects
  • ALL Final Sheets 36x48_Page_4.jpg

    Intersecting Tracks
    Land Management
  • ALL Final Sheets 36x48_Page_5.jpg

    Intersecting Tracks
    Visitor Center

Title Board

Intersecting Tracks

ALL Final Sheets 36x48_Page_2.jpg

Intersecting Tracks

ALL Final Sheets 36x48_Page_3.jpg

Intersecting Tracks

ALL Final Sheets 36x48_Page_4.jpg

Intersecting Tracks

ALL Final Sheets 36x48_Page_5.jpg

Intersecting Tracks
May 2017

Intersecting Tracks proposes a framework plan for the McDonald Observatory, a world-renowned observatory in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. The site was chosen for its remoteness and famous dark skies. Today the observatory's grounds are just as well known for their unique "sky island" ecology, their geologic uniqueness to Texas, and for surviving the destructive Rock House fire in 2011.
Intersecting Tracks prioritizes expanding programming for visitors and researchers, enhancing ecosystem performance, engaging a sense of place through experience, and building local relationships. Two "tracks" of research, one looking up at the skies, the other down at the soil, plants, and animals, will coexist on this remote, 800-acre satellite campus. And four physical "tracks", trail loops of differing lengths, allow both researchers, land managers, and visitors to explore the site. These trails link the varying terrain, plant communities, water features, and telescopes, weaving research and experience through the landscape. The 20-30 acre plots shaped by the trail network become research plots for both bison grazing and controlled burns.
Finally, a newly-designed visitor center acts as a hub for these four trail loops. Visitors explore a series of enclosed spaces designed to exhibit the unique geology, hydrology, biology, and astronomical research that the site hosts.

photo of Miles Payton

Miles Payton

Rem Kielman
Tags:
master plan
Landscape Architecture
west texas
mcdonald observatory
trans-pecos
davis mountains

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