Envisioned as a 3,800 sf Net Zero building, the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center includes spaces for exhibits, conference and training rooms, and offices. The design allows the facility to act as a hub for visitor activities, including refuge tours, and interpretive and environmental programs. The Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is 16 miles northwest of Denver on the grounds of a former nuclear defense facility. The site is generally undisturbed and provides habitat for a number of threatened and endangered species. Otak is providing architecture, landscape architecture, and structural engineering services for this visitor center.
Expertise: Public Architecture
Big Bend National Park Boquillas Crossing Visitor Contact/Border Station
The NPS and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) partnered on construction of this 1,600 SF joint use facility that includes a lobby for visitor contact, restrooms, CBP space, and building support spaces. The goal was to provide access for park visitors and other members of the public to cross the border between the US and Mexico at the historic crossing location that had been closed since 2001.
A Sustainable Design for a Historic Border Crossing
The lobby houses automated US Customs scanning kiosks, maps, and general information on Big Bend NP and Mexican conservation areas just across the border. Site design included a parking area, an external breezeway, and exterior plaza area with a covered trellis for shade in this desert location. This facility was designed to achieve LEED Gold certification and integrates simple, but sustainable systems for ease of maintenance.
Big Oak Flat Visitor Contact Station Improvements
In replacing the existing Visitor Contact Station, a new welcome center would be designed just inside the Big Oak Flat entrance to Yosemite National Park. The 4,000 square-foot facility includes office space for staff working at the facility and within this district of the park. The Otak team developed solutions responding to a range of programmatic, functional, and logistical requirements involving multiple stakeholders, while developing an architectural language and character appropriate for a project of this significance—an entrance to this unique World Heritage Site.
An Energy-Efficient Welcome Center for a World Heritage Site
The Welcome Center design incorporates high energy efficient systems while site improvements include relocation of an emergency generator and a communication hub serving the entrance development area. In addition to the Welcome Center itself is also a separate, 1,250 square-foot restroom facility. A new exterior orientation plaza allows programs and self-serve orientation for visitors. The plaza includes information on general park orientation, interpretation, seasonal information, and trip planning while also providing shade areas and informal seating. Visitor parking will be expanded with an accessible pedestrian walkway extending from the parking area to the welcome center and restrooms.
American Camp Visitor Center at San Juan Island National Historical Park
In replacing a temporary, 1,448 square-foot visitor center, the National Park Service (NPS) aimed to update facilities for visitors and staff alike. A 2,500 square-foot permanent visitor center would ultimately be constructed in its place. Otak led the design of these park improvements.
An Updated Facility for Improved Visitor Experiences and Park Operations
After studying potential locations for a new visitor center, the site of the existing double-wide trailer originally installed in 1977 was chosen for its replacement. The new design provides space for visitor orientation, seating for an updated audiovisual program, fully accessible exhibits, public restrooms, and office and storage space for ranger staff. With the goal of improving visibility and safe access to the site from the public roadway, the project also includes a realigned entry drive. Other site improvements include a new entry monument sign, an expanded parking lot, an outdoor interpretive plaza for education programs, new outdoor exhibits, upgraded power and communication service, and replacement of the septic system. The visitor center, parking lot, exhibits, audiovisual program and public restrooms will be fully accessible, allowing visitors of different abilities to learn about and experience park resources.
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge Administration Building
Now the nation’s premier urban National Wildlife Reserve, Rocky Mountain Arsenal has evolved over the decades. The site once served an Army facility associated with weapons manufacturing during WWII before being decommissioned and transitioning to its current use as a wildlife refuge. With increasing park use, new administrative facilities would be designed and built to improve operations as well as visitors’ experiences.
Expanding Features in a Sustainable Design for a Park’s Growing Use
The site had 250,000 visitors in 2015 and expected to soon eclipse 1 million annual visitors. Otak, as a subconsultant, provided architecture, landscape architecture, and structural design services for a new headquarters building and meeting facility for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) administrative staff, separate from visitor facilities. With a focus on sustainability, the new facilities were designed with a minimum LEED Gold standard. Solar readiness and daylighting strategies were included to lower the energy requirements for lighting and cooling, while the stone siding is locally sourced. The project consists of a 4,200 square-feet headquarters building, a 1,000 square-feet meeting annex building, a 56-space parking lot, realignment of entrance driveways and gateway features, expansion of the existing parking lot and associated hardscape, landscape, and utility systems.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial Visitor Center and Plaza Paver System Rehabilitation
Poor drainage affects us all—even American presidents. At Mount Rushmore National Memorial, a potent combination of water intrusion and freezing winters damaged the Avenue of Flags walkway and deteriorated the inside of the park’s visitors center.
Designing a Lasting Visitor’s Center for a National Monument
In rehabilitating the visitor facilities for the National Park and upgrading building components to be more energy efficient, the historic monument aims to provide a lasting location for quality visitor experiences. Outside the facility, designers developed a new pavement system to better manage drainage and resist deterioration from the seasonal freeze-thaw cycle. With this Otak led design, the result is a safer visitor experience that reduces operating costs and, like the presidents’ sculpted visages, will last for years to come.