rangeland complex

Bahr Vermeer Haecker ArchitectsLincoln | Omaha Nebraska

Dan Worth, AIA, Principal for DesignDennis Coudriet, AIA, Project ManagerMark Bacon, Graduate Architect

Chadron State CollegeNebraska State College System

Populous | Associate ArchitectR.O. Youker, Inc | Structural EngineersEngineering Technologies, Inc. | MEP EngineersM C Shaff | Civil Engineer

Sampson Construction

Chadron, Nebraska

14,700 GSF | Laboratory Facility24,900 GSF | Live Animals Facility

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Rangeland ComplexChadron, NE


Bahr Vermeer Haecker

Context + Region

The High Plain’s ocean of rolling, grassy swales and rangeland erupt abruptly into the rugged Pine Ridge. The prevailing north winds carved an escarpment, revealing at precise moments shards of sandstone out-cropping, to create a striking contrast to the expansive range. The atypical region in Northwest Nebraska mixes an undulating landscape with an expansive panoramic sky equating to what seems a limitless horizon. Nestled into this contrasting landscape is Chadron State College. The richly varied ecology of diverse plant and animal life, timbered canyons, and grazing pastures provide an opportunity to reinforce the range management programs.

Since the founding in 1911 Chadron State College (CSC) continues to be engaged in the ranching, farming and rural life of the Northwest Nebraska and the four-state region. Students enroll at CSC due to

its “hands-on, boots-on-the-ground” pedagogy in rangeland and agriculture programs. Learning the lessons of the land—discipline, sacrifice, and hard work—can be evidenced by empirical instruction in the land.

History

Rangeland Management is a growing and viable academic focus offered at CSC. The educational opportunities for students and ranchers are pertinent to the continued vibrancy of the rangeland region. The Rangeland Management Department, CSC Rodeo Club, and associated student activities currently operate in deficient spaces. The lack of quality space to instruct and demonstrate rangeland practices has quickly become a hindrance to the program. Social gathering spaces for students and faculty to engage in impromptu learning is not fostered in the current space. Likewise the Rodeo Club is forced to practice and compete at an off-site venue putting the students at a competitive disadvantage. Subsequently a needs statement was drafted to construct two new facilities: a soil and animal science laboratory and a live animal facility.

Design Objectives

As a response to the circumstances of the land the building design utilizes familiar regional organizing compositions, contemporary interpretations of agrarian forms, and vernacular material selection. In addition environmental stewardship and demonstration utilized as an educational tool reinforces the situating of the complex in the land. Drawing inspiration from these informants creates an emotional response to a practical building, relatable to the end user.

The buildings are placed below the crown of a short-grass prairie hill southeast of campus. The approach to the complex reveals buildings with a low profile, respectfully situated, rising out of the

“The land is not the setting for the work but a part of the work”

—Walter de Maria

Buildings rising out of the prairie concept sketch

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Location of the sun and views from the building site sketch

Site placement strategy concept sketch



prairie. The complex is organized as a series of additive volumes reminiscent of ranch compounds added to over time. Roof planes of the volumes tilt and intersect to echo the faceted forms of the Pine Ridge. Parking surfaces are deliberately buffered from the buildings by a prairie planted on earth berms. Visitors are compelled to mentally leave the vehicle and reestablish a connection to the landscape. The meandering path through the earth-berm prairie to the Laboratory Building entry provides a sense of discovery and connection to rangeland, visually screening cars, and providing protection from prevailing winds.

Visitors are compressed upon entry by passing through a vestibule before emerging into an expansive, light-filled space. They stand in a grand hall surrounded by locally-sourced pine columns recalling the Pine Ridge region they inhabit. Exposed wood rafters capture the eye to guide the visitor to the end of the grand hall. A wall of glass directly in view beckons the visitor to approach and discover they now have the unique vantage point of observing the prairie from above. The limitless horizon iconic of the region offers distant views to ‘C’ hill, the Pine Ridge, and the campus. The office volume orientation bends to figuratively create an axis to campus and generate southern views and natural daylight. An outdoor deck reconnects the visitor to the landscape while overlooking campus proper. The northern

Building entry concept sketch

Prairie observation concept sketch

Grand hall entry sketch

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edge of the office wing is contained by a rammed-earth wall rising out of the landscape telling a unique story of the rangeland by demonstrating soil strata. The monumental rammed-earth wall is selectively punched by a stereotomic opening allowing the thickness of the wall to be experienced, while affording a hovering view over the prairie. Visitors, at this point, are presented with two final destinations: the herbarium or the laboratories. One is encouraged to descend to the lower level to once again arrive at the prairie level, where a herbarium houses collected samples of what has been observed in the prairie. Circulation to the laboratory classrooms is guided along a continuous casework bar, used to collect and organize equipment associated with each space. The laboratory classrooms are controlled environments structured to facilitate flexible curriculum delivery with careful attention to daylighting and framed views to the landscape.

Following the casework bar to the south, one exits the laboratory building on a path leading to the Live Animals Facility. The casework bar reappears as a circulation spine to organize trophy cases, memorabilia, and sponsorships at the interior concourse. Visitors descend from the concourse level to seats offering an unobstructed arena floor view supplemented with diffused natural light.

Material selections for the buildings reinforce the story of the pastoral landscape and its juxtaposition to education. Vernacular influences are interpreted through contemporary detailing and familiar regional materials clad a recognizable agrarian archetype. These choices are quiet yet rigorous—rustic yet sophisticated, but emotionally potent as they spring from the particular circumstance and reveal architecture related to place.

The exposed rafter tails and built-up pine columns evoke images of farm out-buildings. Corrugated metal shingle siding recalls grain silos that contrast the horizontal prairie. Cedar shiplap siding links to barn structures while reinforcing the horizontality of the prairie. The screen walls, composed of open-joint siding boards, are an interpretation of wind shelters that drape across sprawling rangeland to protect cattle. As light passes through the screen it dances down the corridor throughout the day, changing nearly as frequently as the prairie.

General circulation diagram

Visual connection to landscape diagram



While the building will achieve a LEED rating, the environmental stewardship choses to assimilate demonstration stations as a part of a substantive, tactile experience for visitors that can directly translate to an application on their ranch. Solar power, water retention and water collection, native plantings, innovative windbreak technology, wind-generated power, geothermal wells, and pervious paving, among others enrich the educational tool of the complex reinforcing the ‘hands-on, boots-on-the-ground’ mentally of the students and faculty.

The rangeland complex, a building representative of the land and situated carefully in the land personifies the CSC rangeland management mission. The complex is sensibly ordered yet surprisingly evocative, shaped by the land and for the people who visit it.

Corridor concept sketch

Site sketch

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site plan



view of prairie level

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view from outdoor deck



view from campus

view from approach drive

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view of south entrance

view from live animals facility arbor



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north elevation

south elevation