Richard Neutra's Cyclorama Building

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cyclorama Building

Richard Neutra's Cyclorama Building is a concrete and glass structure erected by the National Park Service on the grounds of the historic Gettysburg Battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It is located in Ziegler's Grove, at the northern end of Cemetery Ridge, not far from the site of Pickett's Charge.

The Cyclorama Building was designed in 1961 by Viennese born architect Richard Neutra (1892-1970) as a place to view the 1883 Paul Philippoteaux cyclorama painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. Located just outside of Gettysburg on a part of the actual battlefield, it showcases the modernist style of clean lines and simple, yet striking form in the landscape. Build as part of "Mission66," the building became a well known landmark for the battlefield visitor. However, interior design flaws had led to the deterioration of the painting and, in the 1990s, the National Park Service commissioned a study to build a new facility. In 1998, the building was declared a historic structure by the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places as it possesses "exceptional historic and architectural significance."^[1]

The new Visitors' Center, located on government land that was not a significant troop position during the battle, will open to the public in the spring of 2008 and will house the restored Cyclorama. Neutra's building is slated to be demolished and the ground and adjacent parking lots partially restored to their 1863 appearance.