Mountain Center

In construction of the Mountain Center function follows form, in this case the forms of the hills and the canopies of windswept Bishop or Monterey pines that stand on California's coastal ridges. Walking through the area it is easy to see why the Japanese art of bonsai, the shaping of miniature living trees, originated in coastal environments of this kind. Many of the largest trees on the ridge were lost in the 10,000 acre Vision Fire that swept the area twelve years ago, and although the Monterey pine is fire-seeded the abundant new forest provides little protection overhead yet from the sun or winds. In his designs the architect Daniel Liebermann incorporated the image of a trunk and spreading canopy as a radial design element, and the retaining walls found on the uphill side of the structures follow the site's natural contours. Listen as Alan Watts talks about the forms humans create, and the wiggly world of nature.