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• 1 2017-11-05T11:22:27-08:00 Beaver Meadows Visitor Center and Rocky Mountain National Park 26 Legacy of Beaver Meadows Visitor Center image_header 2017-12-18T13:42:16-08:00

  Dates

  January 2001 - Designated as a National Historic Landmark

   

  Context

  The Beaver Meadows Visitor Center continues to be one of Mission 66’s biggest successes, gaining recognition as a National Historic Landmark in January of 2001. The building’s design is harmoniously in line with Mission 66’s core philosophy of enhancing the visitor experience in tandem with the rise of the automobile. This impressive structure shifts the viewer’s focus to the park itself and encourages mobility. Its expansive, window-laden interior constantly reminds visitors to explore the outside world.

   

  
   

  The center’s furniture and decor, personally selected by Olgivanna Lloyd Wright and Taliesin Associated Architects, take a similarly modernist approach as the building itself, mixing manufactured aesthetics with a hint of naturality (National Historic Landmark Nomination, 2001). Like the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center itself, the furniture offers visitors a welcome place to rest, but discourages them from lingering for too long while the park beckons.

  Related Objects to Explore

  Brass Floor Ashtray; Oak Arm Chair; Oak Bench; Two-Seat Oak Bench
• 1 2017-11-09T21:55:58-08:00 Objects 17 plain 536978 2017-12-06T19:53:45-08:00
  
  This exhibit centers around the 14 objects from the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center preserved from the Mission 66 era. What once was a group of seemingly haphazard objects now helps tell a story of the ways Beaver Meadows Visitor Center was designed to facilitate and inform an increasingly large influx of visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park. From auditorium benches to standing ashtrays, this exhibit features the smaller details that developed out of a series of compromises between National Park Service administrators and renowned designers from Taliesin Associated Architects. While the pieces might seem insignificant when considered separately, these objects collectively help us grasp the culture of Mission 66 and the values that it sought to promote. 
  
  
  In this exhibit, we discuss objects designed and purchased to help facilitate visitor experiences at Beaver Meadows.
  To explore these objects, please click to the next page to find our full collection of objects. There you can either briefly glance through the exhibit or spend time discovering the contexts of each object that help to construct our understanding of the impact of Mission 66 on Beaver Meadows. 
  
   
• 1 2017-11-19T12:56:26-08:00 Beaver Meadows Visitor Center Construction 10 plain 2017-12-18T12:39:42-08:00

  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).

   

  Related Objects to Explore

  Brass-Finished Doorstop; Brass Floor Ashtray; Recessed Ceiling Light Fixture; Scalloped-Edge Carpet Remnant; Wall Covering