Describe the settings for the watchtower and lookout studio in the grand canyon national park, arizona.

 Lookout Studio is a place where history, culture, and nature all swirl together like the rising thermal air pushing up the cliffs of the canyon.One of the most noted and prolific architects of the Grand Canyon and the American West, Mary Colter had a vision for the studio. Like many of the buildings that Colter designed for the Santa Fe Railway, Lookout Studio is a study of form and function. Colter’s Lookout Studio is designed to emulate the natural scenery along the rim of the Grand Canyon using local stone and wood while mimicking 12th Century southwestern Native American construction styles. Known as “parkitecture” this building style is endemic to many national parks in the United States where landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted encouraged designs that blended with their natural surroundings. Lookout Studio was completed in 1914 and is now one of seven buildings designed by Colter at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and listed on the National Register of Historic places. Lookout Studio is also a functioning piece of history at the canyon. Early 20th Century visitors to the park (1900-1930s) could view the inner canyon and trails from large telescopes set up along the porches of the building. During these years, most travelers ventured into the inner recesses of the canyon by mule to Indian Garden, Plateau Point, and Phantom Ranch. From Lookout Studio, early visitors could relive their mule rides into the canyon or get a glimpse of what they were missing if they did not make the trip. The studio also provided a social space for tourists to warm up on cold canyon days, sit and enjoy a good book, or just relax and chat with other park visitors. In the evenings visitors returned to the studio to enjoy the fireplace, good conversation with visitors from around the world, and star-gazing with telescopes.