Technical Service Center —
Client Support and Technical Presentations Office

Visitor Centers

We design and build visitor center presentations, such as the one for the Flaming Gorge Visitor Center pictured below. Here are some " before" and "after" shots of this visitor center:

Windows:

 

 

 

Before: The large window next to the front door at the Flaming Gorge Visitor Center looked out at the entrance to the restrooms and a concrete wall.  Sun glare in the afternoon was very strong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After: An image of the downstream face of Flaming Gorge Dam printed on vinyl transparent media covers the window.  This image eliminates the sun glare and the unattractive view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sales Counter:

Before: The large corner space was the location for the sale items (sold by Intermountain Natural History Association through agreement with U.S. Forest Service).  The space was underutilized and the sale items were not located near the register.

After: Our designer recommended moving the sale items towards the entrance and the information desk/register.  During the first quarter, sales increased more than 35 percent.

Geology and Nature Exhibits:

After: Rearranging the sales space also freed up a large space in which to put up exhibits about the geology and nature of the Flaming Gorge area, and to provide extra seating for visitors.

The country surrounding Flaming Gorge has more geologic history exposed than most places.  Just over an hour away is Dinosaur National Park.  The four geologic eras - Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic are described, and photographs showing areas of each are placed over the photo mural background image of the Flaming Gorge (named by John Wesley Powell during his trip down the Green River).  A geologic timeline (to the left of the photo mural exhibit) lists each era, the major time periods within the eras, and the time span each period represents.

The nature exhibit is a photo mural describing the three ecosystems of the Flaming Gorge—the desert, the mountains, and the river.  Each system is unique and the animals, birds, trees, and wildflowers for each area are shown in the pictures.  This wall presented another challenge.  The main exhaust vent for the room had been hidden behind the sales racks.  Once it was exposed, the temperature of the Visitor Center was easier to control, and the air became much fresher.  However, the vent was an eyesore for the exhibit wall.  The solution — the background image was carefully chosen so that the clouds in the image could be hand painted over the vent.

Topographic Map

Before: The large topographic map of the reservoir and its surroundings is the pride of the visitor center.  The map has a series of buttons which, when pushed, light up a spot on the map and start a video about the location.  The button system worked well (if it ain't broke, don't fix it), but the television was old and bulky, and the walls behind the map were too far away to place any pictures or text.

After: We replaced the old television with a flat-screen plasma model—larger and brighter.  The aspen photo mural walls are of trees less than 5 miles from the dam.  The text at the far left reminds visitors to "Leave No Trace." ( The visitor center is shared with the Forest Service, and "Leave No Trace" is a special program of the Forest Service.) 

Informational Wall Mural

Before: The photo mural image on this wall was very pixelated.  The text on this wall had information that was not always current because of technical glitches.

After: Visitor Center managers wanted to show Flaming Gorge's relationship to the Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP).  The side text gives general information about each dam in CRSP.  Each dam is also represented by a photograph.  The map in the center of the wall is in a backlit frame.

Construction History Mural

After: There is no before picture because this was a blank wall before.  The visitor center did not have any information about the construction of the dam, so this 30 ft wall (the largest in the visitor center) was used to tell the history of the construction.  The background image was scanned from one of the original construction photographs.

 

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