National Park Service: Mission 66 Visitor Centers (Chapter 2)

When Ehrman Mitchell re-visited the Wright Brothers Memorial Visitor Center in the mid-1990s, he was astonished by the changes that had taken place since its dedication over thirty years earlier. Mitchell was particularly bothered by the new fenestration, the areas of exterior concrete wall that had been painted white, and metal sheets covering some of the cypress wood panels. The cypress boards at the edge of the entrance terrace were an artistic "identification" that the Park Service chose to fill-in with ordinary plywood to conform to a standard bench. Mitchell was equally disappointed by changes inside the building. Visitors originally entered the lobby to face a wall of windows looking out over the ceremonial terrace to the flight markers beyond. Today, the doors open into a bookshop and an adjacent information desk. Although the wall of windows and set of double doors still form the facing wall, the view is blocked by shelves, postcard displays and Park Service personnel. Visitors are less likely to use the doors to the terrace, which are now practically behind the information desk. The floors, once vinyl tile, are covered with industrial carpeting. As 1960s photographs illustrate, the original lobby and exhibit area flowed together in a single, spacious and airy room. Today, this sense of openness is compromised by the additional furnishings.

The least visible but most extensive alterations to the building involved heating and air conditioning. The air circulation system required improvement almost immediately. Bids were opened for the work in October 1962, and E. K. Wilson and Sons, Inc., awarded the $5,684 contract. Repairs included the installation of two flow meters and "three-way diverting valves in each of three zones to divert hot and chilled water from units coils." [71] In October 1968, further work was performed on the mechanical systems. The existing heat pump and associated piping and an old three hundred-gallon water tank and twenty-five-gallon compression tank were removed and a new hot water boiler installed. The air-conditioning system was also upgraded.

Figure 26. Wright Brothers Visitor Center exhibit area, ca. 1959.
(Courtesy MGA Partners, Architects, Philadelphia.)

The most significant aesthetic alteration of the original design was performed by East Coast Construction Company, Inc., contractors from Florida who were awarded the contract for the refenestration of the building in May 1975. Along with replacing the original glass with safety glass, work included replacing steel window frames with aluminum, replacing steel casement-type ventilation windows with larger, fixed-sash aluminum windows in the assembly room, and altering door dimensions. The most dramatic change in appearance, however, was a matter of color. As 1961-1962 postcards of the building indicate, the original steel window frames and mullions were bright red-orange, a choice that drew attention to the glass areas of the walls and dome. Architect Don Benson recalls that Ann Massey chose the color to add warmth to the building. [72] The color change, increased thickness of mullions, and adjustments in their locations, resulted in marked visual differences. As much as these changes alter the aesthetic of the building, however, they do not compromise its overall form, affect visitor circulation or jeopardize the integrity of the structure. [73]

While the fenestration project was underway, the park considered a much greater change to its visitor center: the addition of an auditorium and museum extension to the north end of the building. In 1977, the MTMA Design Group of Raleigh, North Carolina, produced a full set of construction drawings for the addition. From the front, the building would appear unaltered, but a circular auditorium was attached to the north side of the assembly room and the museum extended beyond the mechanical room. A circular glider display was included within this area, as was a door into the auditorium. The exterior of the addition continued the general pattern of the building's facade, with rope texture concrete areas separated by panels of wood siding and sandblasted textured areas of concrete. On June 26, 1978, the park sent out an invitation for bids on construction of the addition, along with an expansion of the parking lot and related work. Total costs were estimated at between $250,000 and $390,000. The addition was never constructed, apparently due to lack of funds.

During the 1980s, the Park Service installed stair railings on both terraces and a handicapped access ramp alongside the restrooms. There is also a ramp leading up to the ceremonial terrace. At this time, the park partially enclosed the employee parking lot on the northeast side of the building with a wood fence similar in appearance to the fencing along the visitor parking lot. Most recently, in 1997, a new HVAC system was installed, which resulted in the loss of the two windows on the north side of the building. The covered air duct system, which forms a kind of cornice encircling the assembly room, was painted canary yellow. It is certain that the architects would not have chosen to highlight this aspect of the room in such a fashion. [74]

Figure 27. Wright Brothers Visitor Center lobby, now the bookstore, 1999.
(Photo by author.)

Professional photographs of the Wright Brothers Visitor Center tend to exaggerate its modern features by emphasizing the shell roof. With the barren site as a backdrop, all sense of proportion is lost. Drawings are equally deceptive; the plan appears plotted on a relentless grid. Even written descriptions distort the building's image by focusing on its relationship to contemporary airport facilities. In fact, the Wright Brothers Visitor Center is a small, relatively understated building. Despite the elevating concrete platform, it sits low in the landscape, allowing the hilltop monument to take center stage. Wright Brothers satisfies Director Wirth's mandate of protection and use. The building focuses on experience—leading visitors into the building, introducing a few facts, and then pushing them out to the site. The Wright Brothers Visitor Center was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in February 1998.

In 2000, the Park Service faces growing pressure to supplement its natural and historical parks with theater entertainment and computerized, "interactive" interpretation, both for economic reasons and to sustain public interest. Rather than overshadow the Wright's technology with our own, we might learn from Mission 66 museum specialists who worried that their interpretation would distract visitors from the park site and guarded against "overdevelopment of exhibits." [75] The Wright Brothers Visitor Center not only commemorates the achievement visitors come to marvel at, but does so without destroying what remains of the historic scene. The launching of the first flight is easy to imagine from the ceremonial terrace or high atop Kill Devil Hill.

Writing in 1997, Romaldo Giurgola recognized that the Wright Brothers Visitor Center might be considered "thoroughly insufficient" for the Park Service's current needs and visitor load. He also insisted that "the design reflected the particular period of American architecture of the early 1960s in which the rigidity of modernism evolved into more articulated solutions integrating internal and external spaces." [76] If architects and architectural historians celebrate the building's role during this period of transition in the design profession, the visitor center's greater importance lies in its status within the history of Park Service planning. Few buildings speak so eloquently about the goals of the Mission 66 program—the effort to bring the public into the action without damaging park resources, the importance of a modern architectural style representative of new technology, and the need for a functional visitor facility suitable for the next generation.

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