Posted: 2011

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has announced that a new state-of-the art visitor center will be constructed. The new center will be immediately adjacent to the Park’s existing facility, on Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) about 2 miles inside the Park’s Cherokee, North Carolina entrance.

The new complex will include a new visitor center, restrooms, and an information kiosk along with a new reconfigured parking area and access design changes to Newfound Gap Road which will provide for safer and smoother travel in and out of the facility. The new 6,000-7,000-square-foot visitor center will replace the current 1,100 square foot visitor center which was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930’s to be used a Ranger Station and Magistrates court room. Over the years Park managers say that visitation has risen to over 350,000 annually which vastly exceeds the capacity of both the visitor center and its restrooms.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent, Dale Ditmanson said, ”We are extremely excited about having a new state-of-the-art facility and are especially proud that we expect to construct and equip it without any federal finding at all. Our two primary partners have stepped up to fund the entire project. The Great Smoky Mountains Association, which operates our Park bookstores, has committed $2.5 million for its construction. The Friends of the Smokies are providing the $500,000 needed to design and create all the maps, exhibits and other media to orient and educate visitors to the center.”

Park officials say that the new Oconaluftee Visitor Center will provide an insight into the Park’s cultural history from the earliest Native Americans through the European farmers, loggers and others who occupied the area prior to the Park’s establishment in 1934. The existing center will remain and be converted for multi-purpose use including a classroom for educational programs and community outreach efforts.

“The new Center is also being designed be as energy efficient and sustainable as we can make it.” Ditmanson continued, “We are building it to be nationally certified as an environmentally friendly building under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system.”

Some of the environmentally friendly measures to be explored in design of the new Center are as follows:

• Geothermal Heat and Cooling: The heating and cooling system will take advantage of the constant 55 degrees temperature of the earth, by pumping water into the ground though tubing where it will gain or give off heat, increasing the efficiency of the system.

• Passive solar: The orientation of the building and the select placement of windows will allow plenty of sunshine into the building and also provide heat. Working with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Park has taken solar measurements where windows are to be placed, to be sure they are sized correctly, to allow just the right amount of light, and offset the need for heat.

• Rain water cistern: A cistern will collect rain water from the roofs. The water will be filtered and then used to flush toilets.

• Water Saving Fixtures: Bathroom fixtures will use waterless urinals and water saving water faucets and toilets.

• Recycled Materials: Everything from roofing materials, to cabinets, siding, and structural supports will be made of recycled materials.

• Landscaping: Natives plantings will be used that will not require extensive watering after they become established.

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