You are here

Yellowstone National Park's Albright Center Getting Upgrades

Share

The Albright Visitor Center in Yellowstone National Park is housed in one of the old buildings built when the military occupied the park in the very early 1900s. As such, engineers didn't think much about earthquakes.

However, quakes are common events in Yellowstone, and today's engineers believe it's time to retrofit the beautiful stone building, which housed bachelors, to better withstand the temblors.

Named after Horace Albright, the park's first superintendent and the second National Park Service director, the building located at Mammoth Hot Springs had been through a variety of uses before officially becoming the Albright Visitor Center in 1979.

The current project will involve a seismic retrofit of the existing historic stone building, as well as, addressing some accessibility and life safety concerns. The seismic retrofit requires the installation of a steel frame inside the structure and attaching the frame to the stonework.

In addition to the structural changes, the exhibits will also be receiving a makeover, according to a park release.

While each visitor center throughout the park has a specific focus, the Albright Visitor Center center will feature exhibits on park history and the Northern Range area of Yellowstone, with its diverse and abundant wildlife. A new and dynamic orientation area with interactive displays will offer enhanced trip planning information for visitors.

Rounding out the services that will be available in the renovated facility will be a backcountry permit office where hikers can obtain permits and up-to-date information for backcountry trip planning. The park’s nonprofit cooperating association, the Yellowstone Association, will operate a bookstore in the building were visitors will find a variety of educational materials about Yellowstone and the surrounding region.

The project, being overseen by Swank Enterprises, which also completed the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center and the Mammoth Justice Center, is expected to be completed by spring of 2015. The projected opening date for the new visitor center is the summer of 2015.

During the duration of the project, the visitor center operations will be relocated into a temporary building located nearby. All visitor services, including the Yellowstone Association store, will continue in the temporary location.

Comments

So they're going ahead with this even with the shutdown? How's it being paid for, then? Or waiting till after the ridiculousness is over?


Good point, Megaera. The project is going forward in spite of the shutdown. The money was allocated, the project was under way before the shut down, and it continues.


Cuantro cuestra?


$8.8M for the construction/rehabilitation phase according to the FY13 NPS Greenbook. It looks like 477k was appropriated in FY05-FY08 for planning and design.


Add comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

The Essential RVing Guide

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.

This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.

You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.

So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.