Designing a National Park Visitor Center for the 21st Century

The history of conservation tells the tale of initial disruption in the name of access and enjoyment, like the early encroachments of hotels and tourism operators in places like Yosemite. This narrative underscores a perennial challenge, balancing human convenience with the imperative of safeguarding nature's sanctuaries.

Infrastructure such as roads, lodgings for rangers, and visitor centers are undeniable artificial insertions into these natural settings. Yet, of course, they're essential to managing the human footprint and facilitating a meaningful connection with these landscapes.

Visitor centers, in particular, serve as the gateway to understanding and appreciating the park's wonders, offering essential services like permits, information, and restrooms. The question then arises, how can we construct and maintain these facilities in a manner that harmonizes with their surroundings, minimizing their environmental impact? Enter Zion National Park, a gem nestled in Utah's high desert, where the Zion Canyon Visitor Center stands as a testament to this delicate equilibrium, welcoming the entrance to a breathtaking canyon carved by the Virgin River. The park boasts cliffs towering three times the height of the Chrysler Building, amidst a verdant valley and an otherwise arid terrain. Annually, Zion attracts millions, drawn to its unique landscape and the promise of adventure.

But with great popularity comes great responsibility. The challenge was to erect a visitor center capable of accommodating billions without overburdening the quaint town of Springdale's infrastructure, detracting from the surrounding natural beauty, or incurring excessive operational costs. The National Park Service's response was the construction of the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, a paragon of sustainable design and one of the greenest buildings within the National Park System. I'm Jason Epperson, and this is the America's National Parks Podcast. Ah, you hear that?

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Since the time of the ancestral Puebloans, visitors to the Zion National Park area have been awed by the natural sandstone, canyons, mesas, and rock sculptures. Carved by the Virgin River, the narrow canyon provided shade, cool breezes, and natural cooling in the summer and warm rock surfaces in the winter. In 1919, the park was established to preserve the natural beauty of the area for generations to come. In creating a new Zion National Park Visitor Center for a new century, the National Park Service, working with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, stayed true to the tenets of protecting Zion's natural beauty by creating a sustainable building that incorporates the area's natural features and energy-efficient building concepts into an attractive design, saving energy and operating expenses while protecting the environment.

The visitor center, like Zion itself, serves as an example of how the nation can protect its most precious resource, the earth. The Zion Canyon Visitor Center is a showcase of modern design, meshing perfectly with nature without costing a penny more than a standard building. We've all heard about extensive costs and making buildings extremely energy-efficient. Not so in this case. From the get-go, the National Park Service wanted this place to be special.

by seriously cutting down on energy use and blending renewable energy into its design. They pulled together a dream team of architects, engineers, and energy wizards to brainstorm and create a building that's 70% more energy-efficient than one that meets building code minimums. They took cues from the canyon itself, like natural ventilation, and combined it with technology to create a distinctive design that harmoniously blends with its natural surroundings. And it's beautiful. It's built with natural materials like stone and wood, mirroring the textures and colors found within the park itself.

Its structure is low-profile, aiming to not dominate the landscape but to complement it, allowing the breathtaking scenery of Zion Canyon to remain the focal point. Large expansive windows frame the stunning views of the park's iconic sandstone cliffs, inviting the outdoors in and providing visitors with a seamless connection to the natural beauty of Zion. And much of the visitor center is outside, which dramatically cut construction costs and scale. Walkways and outdoor exhibits are crafted to educate visitors about the park's ecology, geology, and history in an immersive setting, enhancing their experience before they explore the trails and vistas beyond. Let's take a look at the design features one by one.

The primary source of light in the visitor center is natural. It's daylight. The building's energy management computer adjusts electric light as needed. The giant clear-story windows are part of the lighting system as well as part of the heating and cooling systems. Computer simulations help size the windows to collect the right amount of light.

The sun enters through the south in the winter, helping to keep the space heated. But as the sun rises in the sky for the warmer months, overhangs shade the glass from the high summer sun. A coating on the glass reduces heat loss from the building, while allowing light and heat to enter. The west. windows are shaded from the summer sun by a tree canopy.

When it's hot, opening the high clear-story windows helps cool the building by allowing hot air to escape, while the low windows near the doors allow cool air in. Those windows are also opened and closed by the building's energy management computer. The roof is made from structural insulated panels that sandwich a layer of rigid foam between sheets of plywood. The panels are tighter than standard frame construction insulation systems, keeping heat out of the building in summer and in the building in winter. When natural ventilation isn't adequate, two large cooling towers help bring the indoor temperature down.

These look like giant chimneys, but they actually house giant pads that hold water to allow air to pass over it. Water sprayed on the pads at the top of the towers evaporates, cooling the air. The cool, dense air falls through the tower and exits the large openings at the bottom. They're giant reverse fireplaces. The energy management computer controls the size of the openings at the bottom of the tower and can direct cool air into the building, onto the patio, or both.

A wall provides most of the heating for the building. Heat from the sun is trapped between a pane of glass and a black selective coating. A masonry wall stores the heat for release into the building throughout the day. It's called a trombe wall, popularized by French architect Félix Trombe in 1964. Surface temperatures inside the trombe wall can often reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of winter.

This warm surface provides radiant comfort to the visitors. When the sun is not shining, radiant ceiling panels provide heat. The building's efficient design eliminated large electric loads. It has minimal lights and no electric air conditioning. Solar panels on the south roof provide the majority of the electricity that the building does need.

Excess power is sold back to the power company for use elsewhere. Some of the energy is stored in batteries for emergency use during power outages. The new Zion Canyon Visitor Center opened in 2000 and turned out to be an energy-saving powerhouse, saving $14,000 per year from a 74.4% reduction in energy use and 310,000 pounds of CO2 emissions. Heating costs are 64.4% lower than a standard building of this size. Cooling costs are 95.6% lower.

This wasn't just about throwing together some energy-efficient gadgets. It was a full-on collaboration from start to finish, keeping energy efficiency and the park's natural beauty at the heart of every decision. The result? A visitor center that stands as a model for sustainable design, proving that with the right team and vision, you can create a space that's both environmentally friendly and beautiful. But Zion is just too busy for the Zion Canyon Visitor Center.

There's not enough parking, restrooms, interaction, all of it for the boom in visitation. the park has experienced. 2.4 million visitors entered Zion the year the visitor center opened. Average visitation is now double that. So what does the future look like?

Another visitor center in an entirely different part of the park. About 20% or 1 million visitors annually arrive in Zion from the east entrance, nowhere near the Zion Canyon Visitor Center. There are currently no resources to serve those people. Thanks to the continued efforts of a dedicated group of stakeholders, donors, and supporters, that's changing and ground has broken on a new visitor center through a combination of public and private funding on donated land. Staffed by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Kane County, and Zion Forever non-profit employees, this multi-agency location will provide visitors everything they need to feel comfortable and connected during their trip around the region.

More than just a building, the new visitor center will become a regional home for new trails, new experiences, next-gen learning, and a central transit hub with green shuttles transporting visitors around the Southwest Desert. The Zion Canyon Visitor Center stands as a testament to what's possible when we design with nature in mind. It's a gateway, not just to the park's stunning vistas, but to a deeper understanding of our relationship with the environment.

This episode of America's National Parks was hosted by me, Jason Epperson. If you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a rating and a review. If you're new here, make sure to subscribe to the podcast to get new episodes delivered to your feed. If you're looking for photos and tips about visiting national parks, check out our America's National Parks Facebook group, and if you're interested in RV travel, we hope you'll also check out our RV Miles podcast and YouTube channel. Today's show was sponsored by Solo Stove.

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