Tucked away on the southweset corner of 22nd Street and Euclid Avenue, Larson Camouflage is as inconspicuous as its name implies.
In an era when going green is considered a social and civic responsibility, Larson Camouflage has stepped up to ensure the environment’s natural beauty is not compromised by cell phone towers. According to President Andrew Messing, the company wanted to come up with a way to disguise the poles so they blend in with their natural surroundings.
  
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"In many ways we are a green company because we are creating something for the environment to make it prettier," Messing said. "There are definitely going to be requirements to have more cell towers in Tucson because more people want to do things wirelessly. We can work together with the city to create various ways to conceal antennas so that people won’t know that they’re there."
Chances are, most people don’t know about the hidden cell phone towers already scattered throughout the United States, blending with their natural environment.
For example, many Tucsonans probably routinely pass by the southeast corner of Campbell Avenue and Skyline Drive in the Catalina Foothills not noticing that Larson Camouflage has placed wireless site concealment towers in faux-tinted windows in the Starbucks coffee store.
"Our company is not just putting up poles," Messing said. "We have had a number of sites in Tucson, such as the one on Campbell. We concealed antennae in a chimney on one site, and on the other site we actually created artificial windows that matched the other tinted windows of the building. No one walking or driving by the site would be able to tell that it is a wireless site."
The Larson Company created its first cell phone tower after Valmont Industries, which provides service to Verizon Wireless, wanted to design a structure that would conceal a cell phone pole outside of Denver. That’s when Larson created their first "mono-pine," a cell phone tower that looks like a pine tree. The pole shafts of mono-pines are steel while the textured bark is created by using epoxy and paint.
"We like to believe if you can dream it, we can build it," Messing said. "The bark is extremely realistic. It gets painted several colors, it’s not just a solid brown, and it’s a little yellow, a little orange, and a little grey."
From the first mono-pines, other products soon were developed; elm trees, palm trees and saguaro cactus.
The branches and limbs for the faux trees and cacti are made with a radio-frequency friendly material such as fiberglass. It is only upon closer inspection when the slight metallic sheen gives the structure away as a Larson Camouflage design.
Until 2005, Larson Camouflage was a division of the Larson Company. This is the same company known for putting a two-story animated Trojan horse at the entrance to the FAO Schwartz store in The Forum Shops in Las Vegas and for the natural-looking environment found in some of the exhibits at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Camouflage was the smallest division within the Larson Company, that started more than 15 years ago, but according to Messing, it was the one that had the biggest potential.
Since breaking off from the Larson Company, business for Larson Camouflage - which focuses exclusively on the wireless industries - has boomed. The past few years have seen more and more business with jurisdictions all over the country realizing ways to conceal cell phone towers so they blend in with the natural surroundings.
"We sell our products all over the country - all over the world for that matter," Messing said. "We’re dealing with working on some palm trees in Egypt and we just sold pine trees in China so it’s all over the world, really, all over every continent."
Messing says revenues for Larson Camoflauge doubled from 2006 to 2007, which attributes to the fact people are demanding more from their mobile phone services but phone companies and governments want to try to find creative ways to hide unattractive mobile phone towers
"Cell phone towers are a necessary evil. At least this way there is less visual pollution in the landscape," Messing said. "People want to do more and more things with their cell phones, like e-mailing or getting online but it requires more bandwidth. In order to create a device that is more your very own computer than just speaking on the phone means you need more cell phone towers. People don’t want to see them, they want the service but they want the towers to be invisible, so our company has come up with ways to manufacture and create towers so that people won’t notice that they are there."
In Southern California, Larson Camouflage’s cell phone towers are a big hit. Mandated by the jurisdictions, it is virtually impossible to put up a cell phone tower that is not concealed.
While much of Larson Camoflauge’s work is done elsewhere, some of the company’s work is done in Tucson and Messing likes the fact his business is here.
"I know that our employees like doing projects in Tucson," Messing said. "It’s nice for them to drive by a site and take pride and ownership of knowing that we built something here."
Messing said he would like to expand the company’s production in Tucson.
"One of the great things about living in Tucson is that it is such a beautiful environment," Messing said. "When you wake up and you look out on the mountains, it’s nice not to have an unobstructed view and not have an ugly monstrosity blocking your view."
Katie Ryan is a Tucson-based freelance writer.
Larson Camouflage
(520) 294-3900
http://www.utilitycamo.com/
1624 S. Euclid Ave.
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