Market: Planning

Digging Deeper | Cultural

Excerpts:

A new visitor center and hotel just outside the North Gate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs are pretty hard to miss. The multi-planed roof design of the former conjures images of fighter jets staggered underneath each other, and the two structures are connected via a pedestrian bridge.

In the wake of 9/11, stringent security measures impacted the original visitor center on the [Air Force Academy] campus. Annual attendance waned from more than 1 million to about 250,000. The post-9/11 dynamic led to the idea of moving the visitor center outside of the academy’s North Gate.

Situated on a bluff just west of I-25, the 34,000-sq-ft center is nearing completion after the project broke ground in late 2022. Featuring a mezzanine on the first level and core and shell on the second level, the steel structure supports a metal wall panel, curtain wall and three metal panel roof systems. Schnepf says the new facility could return attendance to the pre-9/11 levels when it opens in late 2025. The exterior and structure are due for completion this spring, then the AFA will build out the interior.”

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