New Visitor Center Coming to Great Smoky Mountains National Park

An artist's rendering of the new visitor center at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

There's a new visitor center coming to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, over at Oconaluftee.

Park officials today announced that they've wrapped up work on an environmental assessment on the potential impacts of the visitor center and determined that there would be no significant impact from its construction.

With that paperwork done, park officials say construction can begin immediately. The center will be located right next to the existing visitor center on Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) about 2 miles inside the park’s Cherokee, North Carolina Entrance.

The new complex will include the visitor center, restrooms, and an information kiosk. Additionally, the work will provide a reconfigured parking area and access design changes to Newfound Gap Road that will provide for safer and smoother travel in and out of the facility.

The new 6,000-7,000 square-foot visitor center will be about six or seven times as large as the existing facility, which was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s to be used as a Ranger Station and Magistrates court room.

The need for a larger visitor center is tied to traffic flows -- park managers say that the existing center is visited by more than 350,000 folks a year. Not surprisingly, that number exceeds the capacity of both the visitor center and its restrooms.

Great Smoky Superintendent Dale Ditmanson says the project is being funded by the Great Smoky Mountains Association, which is contributing $2.5 million, and the Friends of the Smokies, which is contributing $500,000 to cover design and to create "all the maps, exhibits and other media to orient and educate visitors to the center."

The new Oconaluftee Visitor Center is being designed to 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.

As for the existing center, it will remain and be converted for multipurpose use.

“The new center is also being designed to be as energy efficient and sustainable as we can make it,” says Supt. Ditmanson. "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 degree 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 be 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: Native plantings will be used, and they will not require extensive watering after they become established.