Camp Butano Creek

The Butano Creek Girl Scout Camp is located on a beautiful 145-acre site in Pescadero, California, 50 miles west of San Jose.  Having completed a master plan for this site in 2011, we were selected for the design and construction of several new cabins and a new lodge, as well as site work and ADA accessibility improvements.

The Master Plan helped encourage the Owner to embrace the unique opportunities the hilly topography of this wooded site provided.  The five new cabins were designed to lean out over a steep hillside. Supported by I-beams and staggered to match the topography of the hillside, the cabins have a definite “treehouse” feel.  This feeling is reinforced by the inclusion of zip-open window covers and decks which are nearly as large as the interior of the cabins.  At the center of this camper cabin village is the open-air, covered “cook shelter”, which reflects the sloped, angular roofline seen elsewhere in the camp.  To maximize the site’s connection to nature, the building and decking were designed to work around old-growth redwood trees, including a special pier and grade beam foundations.

Mirroring the rooflines of the nearby dining hall, we designed a new 2,000 SF lodge building, which features a complete nurse’s station.  The lodge will serve as a multi-purpose facility, including a health center, camper or staff sleeping area, off-season office space, a small kitchenette, and a second-floor mezzanine.

Site work included creating a landslide debris wall and a large, strategically-placed septic system uphill of the facility.  Improvements to the site’s utilities and stormwater management were also completed, along with meeting strict requirements from the fire department.

Construction wrapped up in April of 2015, just in time for the camp season!