In collaboration with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, Baltimore-based architecture firm GWWO Architects shares their design for the new Niagara Falls State Park Visitor Center. Familiar with museum and visitor center projects, the firm has also completed design projects for the Homestead Heritage Center in Beatrice, Nebraska, the Robinson Nature Center in Howard Country, Maryland, and Port Canaveral Exploration Tower in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

A true spectacle, Niagara Falls attracts over nine million visitors every year to witness the powerful force of 3,160 tons of water flowing over the falls per second. The GWWO design team explains the newly designed center will "offer an immersive experience, both inside and out, taking visitors on a journey through time, spanning the eras of geological formation and human impacts on the falls, bringing to life the many voices and perspectives of those experiencing its beauty and grandeur, and highlighting the flora and fauna of the environment." 

View project visualizations of the center's exterior and interior below. 

To highlight the Falls and its landscape, the center will have an "expansive glass facade" to provide ample views and as well as "continuous connections to the falls throughout the lobby and exhibit areas." The center's materials will include limestone sourced from the Niagara escarpment in addition to a blackened metal roof and wood ceilings. 

The roof's perimeter will be fixed with two-sided photovoltaic panels with openings at the entrance canopy so it can be seen from below. This detail was added to emphasize the center's connective history to power generation. Two cisterns are to be installed on-site to capture water runoff to irrigate the native plantlife surrounding the center. 

GWWO's principal Alan Reed shares, "Whether a visitor heads directly to the falls enjoy the amenities inside the visitor center or immerses him/herself within the exhibits, the hope is that all will leave transformed by experiencing the majesty of the nature that surrounds this site.” The center is planned to open in Spring 2023.