The Visitor Center as Monument: Re-Contextualizing

Richard Neutra’s Cyclorama Center at Gettysburg

Christine Madrid FrenchDesigning the Parks

Charlottesville, VA

24 May 2008

Souvenir program, Gettysburg Cyclorama, ca. 1883.

Images from 1950s Park Service promotional literature.

80 million visitors expected by 1966

Visitor Center, Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland, 1962, William Cramp Scheetz, Jr. To be demolished under current park management plan.

Visitor Center, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona, 1966, Cecil Doty.

Boston Cyclorama Building, now used as an arts center.

Former National Museum, privately held until the 1970s. To be demolished under current GMP.

Location map; Cyclorama Center at bottom left, Visitor Center at middle.

View of the battlefield from the roof of the Cyclorama Center.

Kaufmann “Desert” House, Palm Springs, California. Photo by David Glomb.

Lovell “Health” House, Los Angeles, California.

Visitor Center and Painted Desert Community, Petrified Forest National Monument, Arizona. Neutra and Alexander, architects, 1959-63.

Cyclorama Center under construction, ca. 1960 (left), and views from today.

Photograph by Kelly Martin, Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5

Drawings courtesy Historic American Buildings Survey, National Park Service. Cyclorama

Building Documentation Project, 2004, PA-6709.

The Cyclorama painting gallery; under construction (top), cutaway view (bottom).

Gettysburg Visitor Center, view from the east, Neutra and Alexander, architects, 1959.

Drawing by Edward Lupyak.

Cyclorama Center exhibit area and circular ramp leading to painting gallery. Photographs by Boris Starosta, 2003.

Circular ramp and bridge leading to the Cyclorama gallery. Photograph by Boris Starosta, 2003.

View of the battlefield from the roof of the Cyclorama Building.

Rostrum at left looking towards moveable window walls and battlefield.

Window walls and auditorium walls in open position, ca. 1961. “Rostrum of the Prophetic Voice” at center.

View of the outdoor gathering area, facing the Cyclorama Building, 2006

Employee “break area” of hay bales, chairs, and old carpeting tucked under office wing.

Water leaks on second floor lobby ceiling.

Concrete and stone exterior not properly maintained. All photographs 2000-2002.

Visitor Center, Dinosaur National Monument, Utah. Anshen and Allen, 1957.

Beaver Meadows Headquarters; Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Taliesin Associated

Architects, 1964-1967.

Visitor Center, Wright Brothers National Memorial, North Carolina. Mitchell/Giurgola, 1957-59.

These three Mission 66 visitor centers were recently listed as National Historic Landmarks.

View of the Cyclorama Center from the fields of Gettysburg, just visible in the middle ground of photo. Tower now demolished.

Cyclorama Center here.