Painted Desert Community Complex Historic District

What it is

A planned community of offices, utility buildings and staff housing for the National Park Service. At its center stands the Painted Desert Visitor Center, a strictly modernist building that houses park offices and apartments along with a clinic, an auditorium and the visitor center itself. Around it are a community center, a school and a building put up for the Fred Harvey Company's concession.

Neutra and Alexander divided the site carefully between public and private space. Low walls separate the service yard from the central zone, and the homes face inward, set apart from the public spaces. Walking paths tie the whole layout together. Straight lines and manufactured materials were chosen on purpose to stand out against the desert, rather than blend into it as earlier park buildings tried to do.

A bit of history

Construction began in 1961 and finished by 1965, as part of Mission 66, a national program to modernize park facilities. The original landscaping used plants that were not native to the area and needed regular watering. The complex is listed on the National Register, has been designated a National Historic Landmark and has also been named a National Treasure.

Visiting tips

The visitor center is the public part of the complex; the housing and service areas are for park staff, so stay out of them. It sits on Petrified Forest Road. The Painted Desert Inn is about 1.2 miles away, and the Flattop Site, an archaeological site, about 2 miles.