The legendary landscape of the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming exists in the large scale of geological rather than human time. The Alm Foundation, a private Los Angeles-based charity, commissioned Charles Rose to design a camp for underprivileged teenagers on a 4,500 hectare rugged ranchland in north-central Wyoming. Set in the middle of tall mesas and steep canyon land, Paint Rock is a summer camp serving a foundation program for inner-city Los Angeles teens that also offers academic support and guidance.

The program included approximately 2,800 sq m of space, including cabins for 76 campers, lodge for counsellors and directors, a dining hall and various education and recreation buildings. Charles Rose responded to the brief with 16 separate structures in three distinct groups clustered around the mouth of a canyon. The buildings are reflections on the nature of permanence, especially appropriate for a camp. Paint Rock Camp design seeks to capture the dramatic scale, power, and beauty of the West.

Building forms echo the geology and natural shapes of the landscape. The roof of the dining hall, for example, is inspired by geologic fault lines. The residential cabins are built on steel platforms supported by stilts, to tread lightly on the earth. The communal buildings, by contrast, are firmly grounded with extended concrete foundation that forms new terraces. Decks, lookouts, and sliding barnlike doors open these light, primitive buildings to the skies and sweeping views.

The buildings, with their metal roofs fissure in the roofs create openings for views and light in the bright western sun. Together, they form a kind of neatly fractured community. Each building stands independently but connects through a series of pathways and bridges, which in turn reinforces through design the camp philosophy of self-reliance and leadership within an interdependent community. Local materials, such as recycled heavy timber framing, were used as much as possible, to give the camp an indigenous quality.

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