Imagine being immersed in a cornucopia of quiet forest sounds — small animals rustling in the underbrush, birds chirping softly, wind gently shifting the leaves. This is what visitors to Michigan Technological University's Tech Trails can experience inside the recently installed nature megaphone.
The 10-foot-long conical wooden structure, located at the intersection of the Tecumseh and Sure Would trails near the Tech Trails main trailhead on Sharon Avenue, offers a place of quiet contemplation that enhances the sounds of the natural world.
The megaphone, created by Lisa Gordillo and her students along with other campus partners, illustrates the kind of cross-campus collaboration typical of Tech. Gordillo, an associate professor in Tech's Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) in the College of Sciences and Arts, is also the artist-in-residence in the University's College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (CFRES).
"A nature megaphone is an interactive sculpture for the forest," said Gordillo. "It's an intersection of so many things: art, acoustic ecology, entertainment design, well-being, community and sustainability. It allows people to experience nature in a different way than they might expect."
The megaphone's design is based on the original nature megaphone created by designers Birgit Õigus, Tõnis Kalve and Ahti Grünberg, which is currently installed at the Pähni Nature Center in Estonia. The Estonian installation has inspired nature megaphones all over the world, including one recently installed at Belle Isle Park in Detroit. Tech's nature megaphone team consulted on the project.
"Working with that team helped us clarify some of the work we were doing here," said Gordillo. "It also gave our students further opportunities to work with art and community."
It Takes a Village to Build a Megaphone
The idea for a nature megaphone at Michigan Tech first took root when Michigan Tech Board of Trustees member Jeff Littmann, CFRES Dean David Flaspohler and Joan Chadde, former director of Tech's Center for Science and Educational Outreach, approached Gordillo. They felt Gordillo's history of creating art with a focus on bringing communities together within their landscape aligned well with the megaphone's purpose.
Gordillo saw the potential for the sculpture to address several needs, including the human longing for community and connection.
Research shows that people tend to be healthier when they spend time outdoors, but not everyone feels as if being in nature is accessible to them, said Gordillo. Another benefit is to the outdoor space itself. "We know that our natural areas need us to care for them more than ever," she said.
Jared Anderson, VPA department chair, is among the many Huskies and community members who stepped up to support the nature megaphone. Bringing the project to fruition required a massive, interdisciplinary and collaborative effort — something Huskies are particularly suited for.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen just anywhere," said Gordillo. "It takes a lot of people working together, willing to share space, ideas and tools across disciplines."
The Making of a Megaphone
Gordillo and her students spent a total of three years creating the megaphone. They designed and created architectural models and prototypes ranging from two to five feet long. The class tested various shapes and angles, experimenting with a solid version and a prototype that could be disassembled and moved in two pieces. The megaphone was constructed in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts scene shop with guidance from Kent Cyr, VPA associate professor, and scene shop supervisor Mat Moore. Each step of the process introduced students to new perspectives and techniques.
"We had a lot of conversations about the differences between a scale drawing and a hand-built object — sometimes subtle, sometimes larger," said Gordillo. "We also talked about the value of responding to an object as you build it — a more sculptural way of thinking — letting it change and develop, even if those changes are different than how it was planned on paper."
During the next phase of development, Gordillo launched a course she'd created for the project: Art, Ecology and Community. Students learned about public sculpture and working sustainably with a community — and got to work building the full-size megaphone. The course also encouraged students to see the project from all angles, exploring meditative practices in the forest, gaining forest ecosystem knowledge from Tara Bal, associate professor of forest health, and learning about sounds disappearing from the natural world from Chris Treviño, sound production manager at the Rozsa Center — all while sharpening their design skills.
Creating and installing Tech's nature megaphone required:
Three
Five
Two
1/4 ton
10
15+
42
125
60
600+
The course attracted students from all over Tech's campus. For Paige McKean '25, an environmental engineering major, the nature megaphone was the perfect way to combine skill, creativity and a love for the natural world.
"I really believe in preserving nature," said McKean. "I think this will be a good way for people to experience nature in a different way, and hopefully want to preserve what they have in that space."
Many students involved in the project had no previous experience with woodworking, including 2025 grads Kat Davidson, a biomedical engineering major, and Annika Betz, who majored in applied ecology and environmental science.
"Within CFRES we learn a lot about how to manage forests so people can use these products. Actually being able to use the products we've been taught to manage was very interesting. I hadn't really been on this side of that before," said Betz.
Davidson enjoyed learning these practical skills. "There's definitely a balance you have to learn about where there is wiggle room for measurements and where there is not. Sometimes it fixes itself when you're cutting materials, other times you have to go back and start a new drawing," Davidson said.
For other Huskies, like Nikki Donley '26, a theatre and entertainment technology major and one of the project's lead carpenters, woodworking is old hat. However, in a collaborative effort of this size, teamwork sometimes means taking a step back — a lesson in contemplation that didn't have to wait until the megaphone was finished.
"I'm a carpenter by profession," said Donley. "I find myself slowing down and taking my time so I don't steamroll any of the other students."
"The most interesting thing about the nature megaphone for me was being able to see where these trees came from and what they could become, and then having that space in the forest to go, sit, relax and know I helped create it."
The final product is 10 feet long. It ranges from 18 inches wide at its narrowest point to eight feet at the bell-shaped opening where visitors can enter the structure. Built in two pieces, it was assembled on-site. The entire design and construction process took at least 600 hours of labor from faculty, staff and 60 students.
An Amplified Community Effort
In addition to Littmann, Flaspohler, Chadde, Anderson, Cyr, Moore and Donley, Gordillo credited numerous entities and individuals within Michigan Tech and the Keweenaw community for their part in making the project a reality. She called out VPA Assistant Teaching Professor Mike Maxwell; Brian Isaksson, Tech Trails operation coordinator; Donley's fellow lead carpenter, Cas Mankowski, a mechanical engineering graduate of 2022; and the Keweenaw Community Foundation for their contributions.
Gordillo appreciates the widespread recognition of the value that the megaphone offers the wider community.
"Often, these projects require more than what's immediately visible within our own resources," said Gordillo. "People say yes because they really believe in the power of art, and we figure these things out together."
Gordillo and Littmann share a vision to place additional nature megaphones throughout the Keweenaw. They see installing the first on the Tech Trails as a way to invite the larger community to campus. The hope is that the connection to nature will also highlight the benefits of a sustainable culture in which touchstones for quiet contemplation can exist.
"We don't always imagine all of the things art can really do in the world," said Gordillo. "It can engage with big problems, create spaces for communities to be together, and envision completely new ways of addressing issues and concerns."
For Donley, who was involved with the megaphone from the beginning, completing a project of this magnitude comes with a quiet sense of rest and reflection — exactly what the nature megaphone was designed for.
"There is a moment of gratitude. It was gratifying to be with it all the way through," she said.
Michigan Technological University is an R1 public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan's flagship technological university offers more than 185 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
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