Superintendent’s Building, Carlsbad Caverns National Park

HABS Documentation

UT Austin School of Architecture, Fall 2018 (Critic: Benjamin Ibarra-Sevilla ; Client: Carlsbad Caverns National Park ; Collaborators: Beatriz Alba, Estefania Barreto, Sofia Gonzalez, Junyeoung Jeon, Lauren Kelly, Tolu Oliyide, Daniel Scott, and Vangie Ulila)

I participated in a team of nine preservation students that documented a portion of the Superintendent’s Building at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the Fall of 2018 to the guidelines of the Historical American Buildings Survey. Our team surveyed the eastern half of the structure, which included the oldest portion of the building.

The building was primarily constructed in two phases: the first between 1927 and 1929 as a simple, one-story building; and the second in 1932, which subsequently expanded in the building to its present irregular plan. The former executed in the Pueblo Revival Style and the latter in New Mexican Territorial Revival Style, the Superintendent's Building includes character defining stylistic features, such as irregularly coursed rough ashlar and stacked rubble limestone masonry exterior walls; wooden vigas and lintels; and a flat roof with crenellated parapets. As a result of its aggregated construction, the structure is large, rambling, and has multiple levels as it generally follows the natural grade of the site.

The scope of documentation included producing field sketches, conducting photography (digital and medium-format analog), research to produce a historical report, and refinement of sketches into a set of CAD drawings.