First View: Heron Pond Viewing Blind

Dazzling isn’t the first word that usually comes to mind to describe your average bird blind, those oft-jury-rigged, earnestly camouflaged contraptions whose main function is primarily to obscure their own existence. But as Andrew Colopy, visiting assistant professor at Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, points out, “A bird blind doesn’t have to blend into the environment. You just have to find a way to hide people inside it.”

Working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Audubon Society, Colopy led a team of about 20 students in creating what might be characterized as a bird blind for the Dwell magazine set: a meticulously designed, visually stunning structure on a gentle rise near the south end of Heron Pond at the Audubon Center at Riverlands. A product of intense computer modeling and precise fabrication, every detail has a function, like the diagonal openings, which allow for maximum views while keeping avid birdwatchers in perpetual shadow. The look is completely unexpected, but the blind works. “That’s the inspiring part,” Colopy says. “Because design has the ability to make something entirely new and unique.”