起初腮红，高岛，德克萨斯州，听起来彻头彻尾的污点。20世纪的石油提取场地，景观具有其定义，具有巨大的盐圆顶 - 一个像海平面上升38英尺的疙瘩状膨胀。位于加尔维斯顿湾的东侧，距离墨西哥湾的内陆，高岛易于破坏性飓风，也具有可疑的区别成为连环杀手的埋葬地Dean Corl.。
但对于一些人来说，高岛是一个避风港：每个春天，该网站欢迎数千人迁徙的鸟类在他们从墨西哥的向北之旅，被淡水储层和当地植物群吸引。一万只鸟每年涌向高岛的鸟类保护区，包括史密斯橡树，一个由休斯顿奥杜顿社会负责的177英亩的网站。现在，由于推出了700英尺长的天篷走道和建筑师的支持设施，因此该网站能够更好地欢迎它们。SWA集团和Schaum / Shieh.。
休斯顿Audubon从事大岛地点的大型总体规划倡议的SWA将干预措施视为使景观和动物群体的景观和动物群体。Kathrine G.麦戈尔恩冠层走道在2020年代末开业，为休斯顿人提供室外逃逸，一小时半。Matt Baumgarten, an associate principal in SWA’s Houston office and design lead on the project, pointed out that the new elevated path immerses visitors in the landscape in a new way, “getting people up in the trees” and carving out “visual and educational accessibility that wasn’t here before.” (He and his children have frequented the site since the project’s opening last year.)
在鸟类庇护中的建筑是一个敏感的努力。嵌套季节必须考虑到建筑时间表，并且走道需要无缝地融入周围环境，以免扰乱鸟类人群。为了实现这一目标，设计人员拥抱视觉和声学形式的伪装形式和v形底座，这是微创的侵入性。设计师避免了嘈杂的金属装饰，有利于窑干的南部黄松，一种易于获得的材料，因此可以根据需要轻松修复折叠。“你不一定要制作持续500年的东西，但我们确实需要走道，以便高风负荷和大量的降雨，”鲍姆顿说。SWA项目负责人校长Natalia Beard表示，Smith Oak的工业残留也被视为底面细节的提示。“看起来像这种结构一直在这里，”她说。
史密斯橡树的其他地方，休斯顿和纽约公司的公司Schaum / Shieh已经完成了两种结构来支持鸟类游客的游客。从现场的石油提取年度留下了20世纪20年代的砖泵房，已经更新并转变为灵活的露天展品。设计师毗邻，设计师建造了一个包含洗手间，喷泉和信息亭的新具体结构。Whereas SWA’s walkway was intended to blend into the landscape, however, this structure needed to suggest arrival, explained Troy Schaum, co-principal at the studio: “Even if you’re one person down there—which often you might be—you would feel welcome, and it would be a marker that this is it, visually.” Accordingly, Schaum and his studio have appointed the structure with a steep gabled metal roof and a flat graphic facade painted Audubon green. The building’s asymmetrical composition was inspired by the wind-bent local trees, said Schaum.
在所有领域，Avian人口在其他任何事情之前：如果在建造期间有任何对栖息地中断的证据，例如，建设必须停止。(Schaum said that there was even concern about the noise of the door closers on the bathroom potentially startling birds.) In activity and form, the goal was to intervene as little as possible: “It’s easier in architecture to imagine a solution that’s built, or that’s an action,” said Schaum. “It’s very hard to imagine a solution born out of restraint.
