The Great Outsiders: Carl Hayden Visitor Center
A vertigo-inducing building in the Arizona desert.
Welcome to the second entry in a monthly series sharing work from my ongoing project; The Great Outsiders, which explores the forgotten modernist architecture of the US National Parks. Each month, I’ll be sharing stories and images from a location featured in the project. This month is a sweltering visit to Arizona and the Carl Hayden visitor center.
Perched overlooking the Glenn Canyon Dam, the Carl Hayden visitor center initially appears more like the hideout of a movie supervillain than a National Parks building.
Completed in 1963 by Cecil Doty and the NPS Western Office of Design Construction, the building acts as the main orientation point for visitors to the Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area in northern Arizona. The center is fittingly named after the long-standing former Governor of Arizona, who was an ardent legislator for public lands and water rights in the state.
I travelled to photograph the structure in July 2022 as part of a road trip around Arizona to document 4 Mission 66-era visitor centers. I spent 3 days in the nearby town of Page, photographing the hulking concrete center in various lighting conditions, all of which were incredibly hot!
I had seen some images in my research prior to my trip, but getting up close to the sheer scale of the building and seeing its positioning over the dam in person was a memorable experience. It’s truly an incredible feat of engineering and probably the most impressive building in The Great Outsiders from a technical perspective.
I had a fantastic 3 days exploring the center and came away with some images I’m really happy with. It was probably the hottest place I’ve ever worked in too, which made the days feel longer and tougher than I expected. Still, it’s very much all part of the experience of making this body of work and I’m more than happy to be doing it in exchange for a little discomfort.
As unadvisable as a trip to Arizona in the summer may be, it did mean that I also got to experience the almost-daily thunderstorms that sweep through the desert in the late afternoon. At the end of a long day shooting the visitor center, I could pull up to a viewpoint overlooking the river and be treated to an incredible show before heading off to find somewhere for dinner. The light and colors were unbelievable, so I wanted to share a few images with you here.
Thank you for reading and I’d love to hear what you think about this structure and Mission 66 in general - let me know in the comments.
Additionally, if you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, please consider telling your friends and/or sharing it on your socials. Any further attention I can bring to this fascinating slice of post-war history is greatly appreciated!
Next time, we’ll be heading to New Mexico, exploring a modernist structure that hides a surprising secret deep underground. See you then!
For those of you too impatient to wait for next month’s installment, you can skip ahead and take a look at the images of all the locations I’ve documented to date, over on my website.
Another fascinating building Owen, great images of what looks to be an amazing place. I absolutely love the whole idea of this project and am also really enjoying the results so far. 👏
What a great series concept... and a great building to be included. I've been there a number of times and admired it. I want to say there are also interesting angles of it from the dam tour...