Project Title: Haeckelian Observation Tower
Site: Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildelife Refuge, CA
Constraints: A temporary and architecturally experimental observation tower with 300sf of total floor space within 100 sf footprint, 30 ft maximum height. The majority of the structure is to be prefabricated and delivered to the site.

The observation tower is built as part of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project overseeing the transformation of 15,100 acres of industrial salt ponds to tidal wetlands and marsh as wildlife refuge and flood control. The tower is both a destination and rest stop on the Mallard Slough Trail in the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge, providing public access, recreation and an experimental eco-observatory, where visitors can understand the restoration of environment as change over time. Windows frame views that track the progress of restoring industrial salt ponds to natural wetlands. The level of salinity in the water determines its bacterial population, which affects the rest of the food chain up to endangered species like the Clapper rail and Salt marsh harvest mouse. The micro-organisms that live in each specific salinity cause the water to possess unique colors.