Beaver Meadows Visitor Center Construction
Dates
1908 - Frank Lloyd Wright designs preliminary layout of Horseshoe Inn
April 9, 1959 - Death of Frank Lloyd Wright
September, 1964 - Beaver Meadows site selected
June 24, 1967 - Beaver Meadows Visitor Center Opening
Context
Of the one hundred and fourteen visitor centers built during Mission 66, the Beaver Meadows building is one of the best exemplars of the project’s modernist ethos. The center’s location was a matter of considerable debate ever since the launch of Mission 66, but Rocky Mountain National Park’s planners finally approved the site in 1964. Located just outside the park’s official boundary at Beaver Meadows, the new visitor and administrative center not only occupied newly acquired eastern territory in the park, but was geographically positioned to accommodate incoming visitor traffic from nearby Estes Park (Allaback, 2000).Taliesin, the firm of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, designed the visitor center (at the urging of Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall). Wright himself helped draft Estes Park’s Horseshoe Inn in 1908 and the early schematics suggest hints of the organic architectural style that would shape Beaver Meadows. Unfortunately, Wright died in 1959, but Taliesin architect Tom Casey expertly designed Rocky Mountain National Park’s new visitor center in an intentionally Wrightian fashion (Carr, 2007). The structure was deliberately crafted to blend into the natural environment, with its red stone exterior and distinctive, rust-colored Cor-ten steel framework mimicking the mountainous landscape. Beaver Meadows Visitor Center’s visual aesthetic is complemented by its effect on visitors’ perceptions of the park. An exterior walkway wraps around the building and gives guests uninhibited views of Longs Peak and other scenic vistas (Allaback, 2000).
