Pikes Peak, the most visited of Colorado's great mountains, has long claimed a powerful hold on the public imagination. More than half a million people each year ascend to the summit, where they are rewarded with the view that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the lyrics of "America the Beautiful." Even earlier, "Pikes Peak or Bust!" was the famous refrain of gold prospectors who sought their fortune in the rugged Western territory. For visitors today, the perspective from 14,115 feet still evokes the awe and optimism of a seemingly limitless vista across the continent.

 

This is the breathtaking setting for the Pikes Peak Summit Visitor Center, a new building designed to enhance the experience of reaching the top. The facility's careful placement and sensitive design puts the focus on the stunning landscape, allowing boundless sky and views to take center stage.

 

Embedded into the mountainside, the low-rise structure is seemingly carved from the southeast side of the peak. Its form and materials, with stone inspired by Pikes Peak granite, evoke the crags and rock formations found above the tree line. Seen from below, the building appears as a building of the mountain rather than one on the mountain, yet as visitors arrive at the summit it emerges into view as a clear destination. The design orients visitors within the landscape and accommodates exhibitions that allow for a deeper understanding of the history and significance of Pikes Peak.

An unobstructed view of Mt. Rosa from the second floor of the Visitor Center GWWO and RTA Architects

Entering the pavilion lobby from the peak, visitors are taken aback by the perfectly framed view of Mount Rosa, the summit that Zebulon Pike climbed on his 1806 expedition to survey the territory that had been recently acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The architecture of the pavilion highlights the relationship between the two landforms; the lobby walls descend at the 3.5-degree angle from Pikes Peak to Mount Rosa, with the same angle echoed by the upward slope of the roof. Stairs to the main level appear to fold down out of the mountain, as visitors descend to the main floor to access exhibits, dining, a gift shop, and restrooms. Warm, rustic colors and natural materials, such as locally sourced timber, further connect the interior to the landscape. With its terraced design, the building itself serves as an ideal platform from which to survey the views. It features two accessible roof decks: one poised above an outdoor dining terrace, the other an overhang that shelters the lower-level entrance. Together with a third elevated viewing platform, the North Overlook, and a network of protected walkways, the new Visitor Center stages a series of opportunities to experience the drama of the landscape.

"Situated at 14,115 feet-the highest altitude construction site in North America-the project is almost without precedent," said Alan Reed, FAIA, LEED AP, GWWO Design Principal. "Creating an ecologically responsible environment where all visitors can comfortably experience the history and breathtaking setting informed every decision about the design, inside and out."

Environmental stewardship is central to the design, and the team embraced the challenge to create a highly sustainable building in one of the most difficult settings imaginable. The Visitor Center is designed to achieve at least LEED Silver certification, and also to meet the Living Building Challenge, an even more progressive environmental performance standard; it would be the first federal building, and the first in Colorado, to meet this goal.

 

Passive design strategies significantly reduce the building's energy needs, starting with the building's southern orientation on the site to take advantage of daylight. A highly insulated concrete shell and in-floor radiant heating, together with the thermal mass of the stone cladding, help to retain heat. These strategies equip the building for an extreme climate, where winter temperatures can reach as low as negative 40 degrees. Moreover, the building is designed to achieve net-zero energy, with remote solar arrays that can supply the building's operational energy needs. It is also designed to achieve net-zero water by the future harvest of rainwater (not allowed under current state law); water consumption will be immediately reduced with a low-water vacuum toilet system along with on-site wastewater treatment and flushing reuse, only the second such system in Colorado.

Pikes Peak Summit Visitor Center is the highest construction project in the U.S. at one of the most visited mountains in the world. GWWO and RTA Architects

 

Because Pikes Peak attracts far more visitors than the typical fourteener, the new Visitor Center, as the highest altitude construction site in North America, is a project almost without precedent. To allow the building to be constructed more easily at altitude, GWWO and RTA Architects worked with GE Johnson to ensure the building was designed to be constructed as efficiently as possible. To protect the glazing from the almost constant scouring of mountaintop grit and the building interior from flying debris carried by wind gusts of up to 230 miles per hour, a robust and durable curtain wall and shutter system was designed and rigorously tested.

 

With modern amenities and expanded opportunities to engage with the history, ecology, and natural beauty of the summit, the new, sustainable Visitor Center allows Pikes Peak-once considered impossible to climb, now an iconic American destination-to continue to inspire for generations to come.

GE Johnson employee Brandon Cederholm enjoys working on the Pikes Peak Summit Complex project. He received a call that there was a job opening on Pikes Peak and he took the job immediately. For Brandon it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. He is so thankful for all the respect and the encouragement that he has received from the community on the top of the mountain.