Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, whose original construction began in 1769, now includes a new Visitor and History Center to accommodate the half million visitors who tour each year. Improvements include a pavilion for ticketing, education, café, retail space, exhibits, and a hands-on Discovery room. Classrooms, support offices, picnic facilities, VIP meeting rooms, storage and parking have also been added. The goal for this project was to improve visitor services, education and staff accommodations.

The new visitor center consists of three two-story buildings built into the hillside in a tiered fashion, surrounding a courtyard w/ a water feature and open air trellises. Reinforced concrete retaining walls support a reinforced concrete one-way pan joist system at the first level. Steel columns spring from the first level concrete to support a steel framed roof structure at each building – some of which support green roofs. Site stairs and site walls were an important element of this project, navigating one through the three-tiered visitor center on the hillside.

On the web at: [New York Times]