Estes Park Visitors Center by E. Thomas Casey/TAA

[DRN]

I was surprised this visitors center, part of the NPS’s Mission 66 program, and now a national historic landmark in its own right, did not have a Chat thread. Designed by E. Thomas Casey of TAA, the building is constructed of conventional and CorTen steel framing clad with CorTen steel panel and precast concrete elements that allude to Wright’s desert concrete.
The design is a masterpiece.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_ ... tor_Center

This is a detailed study of the building’s history with drawings and construction photos:

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_ ... k/vc5b.htm

[SDR]

Excellent. This is indeed a hidden gem. I hadn't heard of it before finding the rendering published in Spencer's "The Prairie School Tradition."

Problems seem to surround the naming of this project.

https://www.visitestespark.com/listings ... enter/888/

http://www.bas1s.com/projects/estes-par ... or-center/

[SDR]

https://scalar.usc.edu/works/mission-66 ... tor-center

https://www.flickr.com/photos/krossbow/ ... otostream/

https://i.redd.it/6plaobva6vp21.jpg

https://www.nps.gov/romo/rehabilitation ... eadows.htm

http://shivers-out-yonder.com/photos-an ... /slideshow

S

[DavidC]

Previous thread

My wife and I had the chance to tour there a couple of years back on a visit to Rocky Mountain National Park. It is a wonderful building and design.


David

[DRN]

Thanks for finding the previous thread, David. I like having the threads tied together.
I tried a few search terms and nothing surfaced other than ET Casey's obituary thread.

[SDR]

The Mission 66 Visitor Centers (Chapter 5) pages that Dan linked in the first post is a treasure trove of information about TAA's Headquarters building; it also discusses the West Side Administration Building that was apparently designed by the Park Service's San Francisco Planning and Service Center. A Denver architect, Victor Hornbein, was involved in that project at the the beginning.

https://history.denverlibrary.org/color ... -1913-1995

What confuses me is that the Headquarters building's exposed decorative and structural steelwork, said to be made of Cor-ten, does not exhibit the rust color and texture that I associate with that material; rather, it appears in some photos more like painted steel. Is there more than one variety of Cor-ten ?

http://shivers-out-yonder.com/wp-conten ... 233537.jpg

Estes Park is the town nearest the Rocky Mountain National Park; the Headquarters building or Visitors Center is also known as the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center.

S

[Roderick Grant]

I dimly recall a photo, many years ago, of the building with its Cor-ten showing a rust color. Perhaps the building has been painted over?

[m.perrino]

Tom Casey was a very talented member of the Fellowship and I believe he was also the lead on the development and construction of the Usonian home, for the " In the Realm of Ideas" tour.

[SDR]

Recently I read that TAA was instituted by Mr Wright before his death. I hadn't heard that before; is it the case ?

S