2003 Revised Admin History – Chapter Seventeen Planning and Development at Rim Village 1886-Present

The 1965 draft master plan had to be finalized during 1967 because no construction could begin without an approved master plan. The master plan included proposals to: 1) expand the Mazama Campground for a trailer village and camper supply complex (to include showers, laundry, store, and service station), so that the Rim Campground could be closed; 2) construct a concessioner’s employee dormitory at Rim Village; 3) phase out the cold water and Ponderosa cabins; 4) construct a multi-purpose building on the site of the Kiser Studio that would incorporate an amphitheater, offices, exhibit space, and the services of the existing cafeteria. [72]

In the 1967 interpretive prospectus, Chief Park Naturalist R.G. Bruce discussed the proposal for a multi-purpose building, while noting that the lodge and cafeteria would probably remain at Rim Village. He proposed a low profile Lake View building that would remove the need for all of the existing NPS structures, including the Sinnott Memorial. Bruce attached Doty’s 1943 drawing to show a feasible design and concluded that the promenade and its retaining walls should be completely reworked. [73]

By the end of 1967, funds for a new visitor center still were not programmed. Reconstruction on the lodge was put off until 1974 largely because new acquisitions to the National Park System were consuming most of the agency’s construction budget. [74 ] Earlier that year, Volz and the concessioners resigned themselves to the probability that the proposed headquarters move would take up to ten yearn. Peyton and Griffin wrote Hartzog and asked that a contract be negotiated before the end of 1967, and said that acquisition of the Steel Circle facilities could wait until the headquarters situation was clarified. [75] This meant that the lodge would provide accommodation for at least another five years.

After Donald Spalding took over as superintendent in April 1967, the concessioners began installing an automatic sprinkler system to protect the lobby area of the lodge. NPS officials insisted fire and life safety improvements should extend throughout the lodge as long as it served as public accommodations. These improvements were to be part of the new contract with the concessioner. [76]

F. Planning for a new Rim Village: 1968-1977

The advent of a new contract seemed to signal that park planning was headed in a coherent direction, but what few changes were made at Rim Village by the NPS resulted from the Water Crisis of 1975. Site development between 1967 and 1975 was basically left to the concessioners, a situation that brought the involvement of conservation groups in park planning for the first time. The substance of Rim Village site planning, however, changed little even though the master plan format gave way to a general management plan.

On December 20, 1967, contract no. 14-10-9-900-69 was signed by the NPS and the concessioners, The contract was to have a 30 year life and was only the fourth of such length in the history of the NPS. [77] The lodge was sold to the NPS with the concessioner now operating it on a lease. The contract stipulated that the concessioners could enlarge the cafeteria, remove the cold water and Ponderosa cabins, and build an employee dormitory.

The signing of the contract virtually coincided with official approval of a new master plan in January 1968, but revision of the plan began the following September. The revision showed an additional access road to the lodge similar to the 1961 plan. The traditional access from the plaza to the west rim drive was to be obliterated, making the proposed road the primary access to Rim Village. The new road would lead to parking for the proposed visitor center, something that was now to be constructed on the site of the Kiser Studio. There were two arterial roads that branched off from the new road so that the roadway next to the promenade could be restored to pedestrian “green space”. One arterial was to lead to a concession area that was to include an expanded cafeteria and a new concessioner’s employee dormitory, while the other was to go to parking for a rebuilt lodge. [78]