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Remodeled visitor center to open in Death Valley National Park
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PHOTO COURTESY OF DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK
New shade structures dot the courtyard at the Furnace Creek visitor center at Death Valley National Park. The building reopened Thursday after a multimillion-dollar remodeling project.
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Feb. 17, 2012 | 9:01 a.m.
Visitors to Death Valley National Park now have a cool new place to escape the heat.
The national park 100 miles west of Las Vegas is opening the doors Thursday to its remodeled visitor center at Furnace Creek, Calif.
The 52-year-old building has been retrofitted with solar panels and other energy efficient features that are expected to save the park $14,000 a year.
Much of the exterior of the building was left untouched to preserve its history, though the old sign outside was changed from "museum" to "visitor center" and an ornamental pool on the grounds now holds glass tiles instead of water.
The work inside the visitor center is ongoing.
The remodel was expected to take 18 months, but the building was finished several months early, before many of the new interactive exhibits were done. A new park film narrated by actor Donald Sutherland will make its debut today, but other exhibits will not be completed until early summer.
Park officials plan to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony later this year, once all the new exhibits are in place.
The visitor center is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The original building was built in 1960 as part of a nationwide upgrade done as part of the National Park Service's 50th anniversary in 1966.
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
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"breaking news" is right. It would be interesting to see the "Cost-Benefit" analysis of the solar panels. What, the government doesn't care anymore if something actually makes sense, right?
Let's be honest, it's going to take twenty years to make those "solar panels and other energy effieciant features that are expected to save the park $14,000 a year" to ever begin to pay off. What's funny is those panels and other features life spans will expire before the payoff. Nice going Park Service! Maybe NvEnergy donated the "energy savings" equipment...but who knows?