AE: Northern Colorado Welcome Center Landscape
The Northern Colorado Welcome Center sits directly south and west of Interstate 25 and Prospect Road, a busy intersection serving as a main gateway to both the northern ColoradoFront Range from Wyoming and I-80 as well as the city of Fort Collins.
The design intent aims to engage the user in the Colorado landscape using a large north-south ha-ha wall. At the crest of the scarpment users find a 1200 foot Geologic Timeline built of rammed earth. The timeline wall is scored roughly every 6 inches with geologic markers representing several million years in Earths history, all the while casting stunning views west along the Front Range and Continenetal Divide running parallel to the wall in the distance.
Marble cairns demarkate a tilted ground plane leading users to the crest of the wall through reclaimed Colorado prairie. As the users cut social paths across the prairie plane they form runnels, continuing the geologic interface with humans and Earth. The marble used in the cairns is quarried and transported from Marble, CO a geologic anomoly.
