The Vault




The Vault is an award-winning studio made entirely of straw. It's traditional desert style sits well in the landscape near Joshua Tree National Park.

Designed for the late composer Lou Harrison, The Vault uses a few simple materials to create a building of great strength and beauty. A sixteen-foot high barrel vault runs the length of the building, flanked on one side by bedrooms and bath and on the other by four buttresses that form shaded patios. The accoustics of the vault, according to Lou, can only be found in the cathedrals of Europe; already the studio has been used for recordings.

The structural design of the vault is at once simple and sophisticated, and was awarded the Excellence in Structural Engineering Award, 2002, from the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.

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The Vault was designed by John Swearingen and Janet Johnston with Lou Harrison. Janet Johnston was the project architect.
David Mar did the engineering.
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