Mary Colter : Architect of the Southwest

Mary Colter may well be the best-known unknown architect in the world: her buildings at the Grand Canyon National Park--which include the Lookout Tower, Hopi House, Bright Angel Lodge, and many others--are admired by almost five million visitors a year. In addition to creating the "National Park Service Rustic" style, as it came to be known, Colter, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright, is also remembered as designer of three classic hotels: El Navajo (Gallup, NM), La Posada (Winslow, AZ), and Painted Desert Inn (Painted Desert, AZ), where Colter called on Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and Mexican motifs