A series of buildings called the Painted Desert Community Complex that greet travelers to the Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona were among 24 National Historic Landmarks declared by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.
National Historic Landmarks are “historic properties of exceptional value to the nation and promotes the preservation efforts of federal, state, and local agencies and Native American tribes, as well as those of private organizations and individuals,” according to a news release from the Department of the Interior.
Twenty-three buildings, sites and structures at the park remain a part of the complex. This is what the department stated about them in last week’s announcement:
As headquarters for Petrified Forest National Park in Apache County, Arizona, the Painted Desert Community Complex is the largest and the most fully articulated expression of the decade-long Mission 66 program which addressed postwar national park needs for up-to-date facilities and improved visitor experiences, while limiting impacts to natural resources. Designed by renowned architects Richard J. Neutra and Robert E. Alexander in the International Style, the complex contains the many park headquarter functions including a new property type — the visitor center.
Neutra designed the buildings were designed in 1958, and they were dedicated in 1963. They remain the only Neutra-designed buildings in the National Park System. The complex was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
The Arizona Republic newspaper reported the designation will help the Petrified Forest National Park overall:
Park Superintendent Brad Traver said the designation will help the park service protect and preserve the buildings, which are considered significant examples of mid-century modern architecture.
The complex includes the visitor center, offices and a restaurant once operated by the Fred Harvey Company. The restaurant is now operated by Ortega National Parks.
The program provides states and local communities technical assistance, recognition and funding for preservation.
In 2014, the National Trust for Historic Preservation lobbied to have the Painted Desert Community Complex restored. This is what the trust said about the buildings at the time:
Sitting just steps from historic Route 66 and located inside one of Northern Arizona’s most spectacular and scientifically significant natural landscapes, the Painted Desert Community Complex is an often overlooked Modern treasure. Noted Modern architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander carefully designed the collection of 36 steel, glass, and masonry buildings with flat roofs, low silhouettes, primary colors, and native plantings to harmonize with the stunning vistas that surround it. Neutra and Alexander’s bold design set a precedent for a new style of park architecture, which became known as “Park Service Modern.” […]
Virtually all of the original buildings remain, and they continue to serve many of the same functions today. But a perennial lack of funding for repairs and maintenance, combined with the harsh desert climate and earlier inappropriate alterations, have taken a serious toll on these dramatic Modern buildings and landscapes.
Old Route 66 passes through the Petrified Forest National Park, and vestiges of the road remain in its roadbed and parallel telephone poles. The park acknowledges this with a roadside monument at the spot where the highway crossed.
(Image of visitors center at Painted Desert Community Complex in 2004 via Wikimedia Commons; rooftop image of the Painted Desert Community Complex courtesy of the Department of the Interior)
This quarter’s edition of Preservation Magazine has a substantial article on this very same thing.