The USC Architectural Guild Charrette is an annual design competition held by the school that invites fourth-year, fifth-year, and graduate students to compete in a one-day charrette geared around a specific design prompt. This year, the prompt challenged students to design a fire-resilient visitor center in the Angeles National Forest. Landscaping was an important part of this project as they were judged based on how well they embraced fire resilient principles.

The first place entry came from students Andrew Blumm, Alison Iwashita, and William Makoto Izu, who worked together to create a contemporary iteration of the traditional fire lookout tower. Working on a hillside site, their building sits on a rail system that allows it to retract into the hillside and remain protected in the event of a forest fire. 

The landscaping ethos of the entry builds on the practice of administering burns to small shrubs and plants before a wildfire hits to clear the forest floor and rejuvenate the soil as a technique to mitigate the risk of greater destruction in the event of an emergency. Mass timber trellises were used to frame views along adjacent hiking trails and to delineate the format nature of the building.