Aiken Audubon Research Outpost

Situated in the Chico Basin Ranch of southeastern Colorado, and nestled in a cottonwood and willow bosque, the Aiken Audubon Research Outpost supports migratory bird research and public engagement along the Central Front Range. Operated by the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, the station functions for ten weeks each year—five in spring and five in fall—hosting banding operations, educational sessions for visiting school groups, and programs for birders and volunteers.

The new facility replaces a deteriorated setup of temporary shelters and improvised furnishings; it provides a protected and flexible workspace that is rooted in the ecological and cultural character of the site. Designed and built in partnership with the Colorado State Land Board and a local architecture school, the project involved 26 students and two professors who worked collaboratively from concept to construction.

Wood defines both structure and expression of the outpost. The building is composed almost entirely of cross-laminated timber (CLT) made from Colorado Engelmann spruce harvested through sustainable forestry practices. The prefabricated CLT panels enabled efficient assembly with minimal site disturbance, aligning construction with the project’s stewardship goals.

At the eastern and western elevations, cordwood screen walls provide shading, wind protection, and privacy while diffusing glare to reduce bird strikes. Assembled without adhesives or fasteners, the porous screens also function as habitat, inviting nesting and wildlife activity while recalling the filtered light of the surrounding grove of trees.

The outpost demonstrates how wood construction can merge environmental performance, material reuse, and education, embodying the cycles of landscape stewardship and migratory ecology it was built to support.