Hike among designer dreams in
Architecture students dream big — and there’s proof of that in the hills behind Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where some of those dreams have taken shape. Better yet, hikers, horses and cows can roam among them. Sometimes students string up hammocks, do a little homework and take naps in Poly Canyon. (And sometimes selfish bozos show up with spray paint to make graffiti. Making space for creativity is risky.)
This situation goes back to the 1950s, when Cal Poly was beginning to earn a reputation as a formidable school of architecture. Designer and futurist R. Buckminster Fuller came and gave a stirring lecture about geodesic domes, inspiring five students to build one (using surplus boiler pipe) near the entrance to the Architecture Department building.
In 1963, the university moved the dome out to the northeastern edge of the campus. Since then, Poly Canyon has become a one-of-a-kind testing ground that now holds more than 20 experimental projects. The idea, architecture school dean Christine Theodoropoulos said a few years ago, is to give students an understanding that comes only “when you touch the materials.” The canyon is busiest in April, when the school’s Design Village event invites competitors to build temporary structures. The 2023 theme: Biophilia.
It’s a hike of about 2.5 miles from campus to the first structure and back. Park in Visitor Parking Structure 131.
BONUS TIP: Don’t miss my favorite structure, which looks like a whitewashed Gumby doing yoga. It’s called “Hay Bale Arch” and it went up in 2004.