Herbert Maier

Herbert Maier (January 2, 1893 – February 23, 1969) was an American architect and public administrator, most notable as an architect for his work at Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks. Maier, as a consultant to the National Park Service, designed four trailside museums in Yellowstone, three of which survive as National Historic Landmarks. Maier played a significant role in the Park Service's use of the National Park Service Rustic style of architecture in western national parks.

Architecture Maier was a native of San Francisco and a University of California, Berkeley graduate, who began a collaboration with Ansel F. Hall, a Park Service interpretation specialist, in 1921 by providing Hall with sketches for a museum that Hall had proposed in the Yosemite valley. In 1923, Hall's project was funded by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial fund, and was completed to Maier's design in collaboration with landscape architect Thomas Chalmers Vint in 1925. This project was followed by an observation station at Yavapai Point on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in 1928, and the Bear Mountain museum in New York's Palisades Interstate Park the same year. The CCC buildings at Bastrop State Park in Texas, now a National Historic Landmark district, were designed during this period.

Maier was among the first advocates within the Park Service for a National Seashore at Padre Island, Texas. One of Maier's most significant efforts was the design and standardization of the distinctive Park Service "arrowhead" emblem, created under Maier's guidance and adopted Service-wide in 1952. Near the end of his career, Maier was instrumental in the creation and management of the Mission 66 facilities program.

In 1961, Maier received the Distinguished Service Citation from Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. He retired from the National Park Service in 1962.

Extant work Fishing Bridge Museum and Amphitheater, Yellowstone National Park, 1930–31 Fishing Bridge Naturalist's Residence, Yellowstone National Park, 1930 Madison Museum, Yellowstone National Park, 1929, NRHP-listed Yosemite Valley Museum, Yosemite National Park, 1926 Norris Museum/Norris Comfort Station, Grand Loop Rd., Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (Maier, Herbert), NRHP-listed He was survived by his wife, Susan Eleanore Maier (née Gibson) (1901-2008), and three daughters: Margot M. Young; Phyllis M. Zagone; and Barbara M. Cheatham.