Sitting atop the decaying beams of the Cantilever Deck, the floating structure overlooking the fields of Poly Canyon, architectural engineering student Calvin Vigeant found shelter from the isolation of the global pandemic during his first week at Cal Poly.
“We showed up and immediately they were like, ‘You can’t talk to anybody or go anywhere, except outside by yourself,’ so I think for a lot of people the Canyon was kind of a refuge,” Vigeant said.
Four years later, on the morning of Nov. 16, 2024, Calvin Vigeant returned to the Cantilever Deck post-graduation to celebrate its renovation as his senior project, alongside collaborators Roger Biddle and Calvin Morgan.
The team stood with advisor Anahid Behrouzi and Rowan Hernandez, an alumnus and original developer, to cut the red ribbon tied across the restored deck at the Rededication Ceremony, as supporters watched with newfound hope for Poly Canyon’s future.
The ship-like structure, initially titled the “Master Builders Project,” was built in 1990 by Hernandez, Kim Throndson, John Morrena and Lee Benson. In recent years, like many others in the canyon, its state declined massively and was deemed structurally unsound and in need of a full-length project to repair.
Much of the destruction of the Canyon has occurred since the disbanding of the Caretaker Program in 2011 due to liability and safety concerns. Through the program, students were able to live in the structures and act as protective guards against the vandalism that coined the nickname “Architecture Graveyard.”
The declining state of the structures, seen in graffiti and defacement, has sparked discussions of potentially reinstating the Caretaker Program to preserve projects for future generations to enjoy.
“We’re going to get the taggers out of here and restore this to a place where we no longer call it the Architecture Graveyard. I prefer the Structures Garden — it’s where structures come to grow and thrive, rather than to die,” said Al Estes, former Architectural Engineering department head at Cal Poly.
Each year, volunteers run a weekend-long restoration event called “Canyon Days,” focused on the preservation of the canyon. At this event, construction management student Morgan heard about the in-depth repairs the Cantilever Deck needed and brought the idea to his friends, who held a similar sentimentality toward the structure from their experiences hiking and hammocking in Poly Canyon.
“I was like ‘One day when I’m a senior, I want to build my own structure up here,’ so I’m so glad we got to work on this one and bring this one back to life and let it continue for another generation,” Biddle said.
The team started the senior project in 2023 with no original documents to base their plans on, in addition to a difficult permitting process ahead of them. Through design firm Studio Prime Architecture, they used a 3D scan of the structure to develop measurements and dimensions that the missing drawings would’ve otherwise provided.
They began construction in the summer of 2024, with Morgan driving three hours north and Biddle driving three hours south to meet Vigeant in Poly Canyon each weekend.
“The actual build was very intense for us,” Vigeant said. “We would work 15 to 25 hours on the weekend on top of full-time jobs the whole summer.”
In what was described as a ritual for the friends during the 350 or more hours of physical labor, Biddle, Morgan and Vigeant spent their long days with music blasting as they worked from dusk until dawn, finishing their days cooling off in the nearby swimming hole.
After finalizing the deck at the beginning of fall 2024, the trio returned to San Luis Obispo surrounded by people with a shared appreciation for the Cantilever Deck.
Behrouzi, an architectural engineering professor at Cal Poly, acted as an advisor for the reconstruction, with a connection to the structure that began long before the project went underway.
“I wanted to get married here,” Behrouzi said. “But the structure was, it was deteriorating at that point. So this means that I can retire here.”
Also in attendance was Teresa Mauldin, wife of original builder Kim Throndson, who passed away in 2007. Mauldin, a Santa Cruz local, drove down to San Luis Obispo to honor her late wife and brought a collection of Throndson’s original drawings to be included in the university’s archives.
“Even though she’s not with us right now, I know she’s watching and I know that she’s extremely happy that not only was the torch passed, but the flame is still lit,” Mauldin said.
The revival of the Cantilever Deck Structure is a first step for the future of Poly Canyon. The construction of new senior projects and the revitalization of past ones are vital to the reframing of the Experimental Structures Laboratory as a place of life for the structures, not death.
The rededication celebration showed that Poly Canyon is anything but an “Architecture Graveyard,” as the restoration of just one structure gave hope to multiple generations, proving to be a place of union, remembrance and a getaway for those who needed it.
The persistence of students such as Biddle, Morgan and Vigeant demonstrates the commitment to preserving the space for future generations.
“How many courses do you take at Cal Poly where you will invite your grandchildren back to see your final result? And that’s what makes the difference,” Estes said.
