When no one notices his work, Steve Meyer knows he's doing a good job.
That is, when someone walks past one of his palm trees or cacti without realizing that they are made of concrete - or that they are disguised cell towers or switches.
"My greatest joy in cell tower camouflage is that I can beautify an area that everyone can enjoy," said Meyer, whose company The Larson Co. also builds artificial landscapes for zoos and theme parks. "No one needs to know that beautiful scenery has anything to do with cell phones."
About a quarter of the estimated 130,000 cell towers in the United States are camouflaged, some are trees, some are flagpoles, and some are church steeples. Hidden towers are a tricky but essential part of many wireless companies' strategies. After all, how do you hide something 80 or 100 feet tall? Especially since operators' expansion plans have gone from building towers primarily in rural areas where no one cares what they look like to building towers in densely populated areas where "not in my backyard" battles have become commonplace.
Wireless providers try to strike a balance between providing superior cell coverage and maintaining the natural environment. It's not always easy, as the cost of camouflaging cell towers in cities can skyrocket when materials and monthly rent come into play.
AT&T Wireless, for example, has about 25,000 cell sites, some of which are disguised, but the company says this is a challenge.
"While we strive to work with the community to meet their needs, camouflaged towers often increase the cost of site selection, which can impact the cost of delivering service," said Ritch Blasi, director of media relations at AT&T Wireless.
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Getting conceptual and financial support from wireless providers is critical, says Peter Sturdivant, a stealth consultant and agent with Stealth Concealment Solutions, whose company builds and camouflages cell towers on the East Coast, which he says are his Base hides how much time and money cellphone companies are willing to spend.
"The best option for the dollar is the flagpole, but that doesn't give us a lot of creative options," he said.
Sturdivant would rather spend time and money building works of modern art and architecture in urban or rural communities. He said the process involved first walking around an area and then finding the highest point to place the tower. Once the designer felt he had picked a good place in terms of radio frequencies, there were many meetings with local officials.
Getting the rights to build inside a church tower or spire, which is about 70 feet tall, could cost the operator about $100,000 before construction even begins. With a monthly rent or lease fee charged to the church and an effort to maintain the unique charm of the structure, telcos can spend more than $1,000 a month on each tower and can wait six months to two years from the start to see a project make achievement.
Once the municipality and carrier agree on a location, the fun of Sturdivant begins.
"Working with historic buildings is best because you can look at old blueprints and match work today with work done 200 or 300 years ago or more," he said.
He said he likes to build cellular towers in churches, and in the northeast, these towers are often built on hills because they represent town centers from hundreds of years ago. He has completed 30 such projects, each with its own challenges, such as maintaining the integrity of buildings, especially older buildings. Doing this type of masonry reconstruction and structural restoration helped him tap into his architectural interests.
"It ranges from Gothic to Romanesque to modern, and I try to find as many original drawings as possible to work with," he said.
For The Larson Co.'s Meyer, the camouflage includes rocks and cacti to hide cellular antennae and switches. Simulating deserts, palm trees and more barren landscapes in the southwest is different than locating a site in the northeast, he said.
"We can't put that many branches on a palm tree, like a pine tree, so we have to be more creative in how we hide the technology," Meyer said.
Of course, not all towers are well hidden, which is a real pain point for camouflage experts.
In many parts of the country, tower tops require 80 or even 100 feet to clear tree lines, but operators looking to cut costs will limit the number of palm fronds or pine branches on fake trees.
"When your lowest branch is at 60 feet, it looks obvious and isn't aesthetically pleasing," Meyer said.
"My favorite question is 'what type of tree can we use to build a 170-foot tower?'" Stediwan said. "Look around; do you see any trees that are 170 feet tall? Something like that gets attention, and it's not great."
