Painted Desert Community Complex Historic District

The Painted Desert Community Complex is the administrative center of Petrified Forest National Park. The community center includes administrative facilities, utility structures and National Park Service employee housing, planned by architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander as part of the Mission 66 park facilities improvement program. Work on the community began in 1961 and was completed by 1965. The complex contrasts with earlier Park Service architecture that sought to blend with the environment. The Painted Desert community used straight manufactured materials that deliberately draw a contrast with the natural environment.

Painted Desert Community Complex Historic District
LocationOne Park Rd., Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Coordinates35°4′6″N 109°46′50″W
Area240 acres (97 ha)[1]
ArchitectNeutra, Richard; Alexander, Robert
Architectural styleModern Movement, International Style
NRHP reference No.05000284, 100000838
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 15, 2005[2]
Designated NHLDDecember 23, 2016

The most significant building is the Painted Desert Visitor Center, designed as a severely modernist structure that includes administrative offices., a visitor center, an auditorium, a clinic and staff apartments. Other structures include a community center, school and a Fred Harvey Company concession building.[3]

Neutra and Alexander paid particular attention to the division of the complex into public and private areas, using low walls to divide the Park Service service area from the central zone, and setting the inward-facing residential areas at a distance. Pedestrian circulation paths are used as defining organizing elements.[4]

The original landscape design used non-native plants that required regular watering. Removal of irrigation caused these plants to die, altering the landscape.[4]

The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, and was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 2016.

See also

References
  1. "Arizona - Apache County - Historic Districts". nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com. Archived from the original on December 2, 2017. Retrieved December 2, 2017.
  2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  3. "Painted Desert Visitor Center, Admin, & Apartments". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-11-26. Archived from the original on 2011-05-21. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
  4. Rodd Wheaton and Dawn Bunyak (December 16, 2004). "National Register of Historic Places: Painted Desert Community Complex Historic District" (pdf). National Park Service. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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