Enchanted Hills Camp for the Blind has served blind children, teens, adults, seniors, deaf-blind individuals, and families of the blind since 1950. Located on 311 acres on Mt. Veeder, the camp is 10 miles west of Napa, California. Devastatingly, a wildfire swept through the area in 2017 destroying over half of the buildings as well as hundreds of trees on the camp property.
In the aftermath of the fire, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which owns and manages Enchanted Hills Camp, quickly engaged in a capital campaign to rebuild the camp. Renowned architecture firm Perkins&Will was selected to reimagine the camp with full ADA accessibility and blind design in mind. Wright Contracting was hired as the General Contractor for the rebuild.
Rebuilding Enchanted Hills Camp has been done in phases so that portions can be used while other areas are under construction. Electric and water have been moved underground and new water tanks and a parking lot with a 450W Photovoltaic System have also been installed. New structures on the property include two bath house buildings, 11 cabins, and a 7,000 square foot Forest Commons Building with indoor/outdoor amenities, commercial kitchen and outdoor pizza ovens, and communal gathering spaces.
Important in the rebuilding process was input from LightHouse and the greater California blind community and included interviews with stakeholders and a survey sent to hundreds of individuals. Interesting design challenges emerged such as the need for a simple way for users of the bath houses to store their personal belongings. The solution was 60 storage cubbies each with a unique embossed picture to tell a person which cubby they have. To find a cubby, users feel for recessed notches that have been customized for every group of five vertical cubbies.
The selection of materials to rebuild the camp was also of utmost importance. For example, tactile materials and leading edges were chosen to help users understand spatial location and direction. Given that the camp is located within 311 acres of pristine redwood forest, the use of redwood pattern stock for the interior cladding and exterior siding comes as no surprise. Humboldt Sawmill Company supplied raw redwood stock to Adobe Lumber in American Canyon, California, where it was milled to a special pattern specified by the architecture firm. The redwood pattern stock adorns all the new buildings including the Forest Commons Building, cabins, bath houses, and welcome center, as well as a large deck in the center of a redwood grove that serves as a central location for Music Camp and summer concerts.
"Enchanted Hills Camp is one of those special projects that you hope to be able to contribute to during your career," says Blake Ridgway, General Manager, Adobe Lumber. "We have built up our remanufacturing capabilities specifically to be able to produce custom millwork for projects like this one."
Ridgway continues, "Redwood is a special material anyway and on this project it really shines. It is visually beautiful but also has a great tactile quality, which is particularly important in this setting."
For more information about Enchanted Hills Camp for the Blind, please visit https://lighthouse-sf.org/enchanted-hills/about-enchanted-hills/
Architect: Perkins&Will
Builder: Wright Contracting
Photography: Humboldt Sawmill Company
