Modern design and sustainable preservation best practices come together in the modernization of the Painted Desert Community Complex at Petrified Forest National Park. Located in the remote high desert of northeast Arizona, the 230-square-mile park is best known for its Triassic fossils and expansive deposits of petrified wood set within an otherworldly landscape. Designed as a gateway to the park, the complex is a modernist masterpiece by renowned architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander.

Originally conceived as a “microcosm of a city” and completed in 1965 during the Mission 66 period of development within the National Park System, the complex comprises long, low buildings with flat roofs that frame a series of wind-protected outdoor courtyards. The buildings serve a range of functions, including a visitor center, administration, housing, laboratory, and support facilities. Constructed of concrete masonry, stucco, glass, and aluminum, the structures were unified by a custom color palette designed to both blend with and contrast the surrounding desert. Deep overhangs, ribbon windows, sliding glass doors, and Neutra’s signature “spider leg” steel structural elements established the complex as an icon of the International Style and led to its designation as a National Historic Landmark.

The original design concept—a sheltered oasis in a windswept desert—reflected mid-century aesthetics and advanced the Mission 66-era NPS goal of creating a community-centered outpost in a remote park setting. Yet even at completion, the buildings exhibited significant issues. Unstable clay soils compromised foundations and degraded concrete masonry walls, and subsequent repairs proved only moderately effective and often detrimental to the integrity of the original design.

In response to these challenges, Hennebery Eddy Architects, in partnership with the National Park Service and in consultation with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Neutra Institute, and the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office, is leading a comprehensive rehabilitation rooted in sustainable preservation principles. The effort restores and strengthens the original design through carefully integrated resilient and modern interventions.

Five buildings and spaces in the complex are addressed in the current phase of work: the visitor center and administration building, one of four housing blocks, vehicle storage building, maintenance building, and the outdoor central plaza.

Designed to operate as a net-zero energy facility, the revitalized complex integrates significant enclosure improvements and comprehensive mechanical system upgrades, informed by a data-driven process that employed advanced diagnostic tools, material analysis, and energy and daylight modeling. Passive design strategies are also critical, including the rehabilitation of original architectural elements — cantilevered roofs, walkway canopies, and south-facing masonry walls — which shade extensive glazing and mitigate the intense high-altitude heat gain. Efficient, practical systems upgrades include heat pumps in the housing blocks and a VRF system at the visitor center and administration building. A planned 330kW solar array, coupled with the campus-wide transition from propane to all-electric systems, supports the net-zero strategy and long-term resilience.

Beyond energy improvements, the work includes foundation reinforcement, new low-slope roofs, interior finish updates, new fire protection systems, the sensitive integration of an elevator to improve accessibility, and site and landscaping improvements. The rehabilitation also removes past alterations that compromised Neutra’s vision, including demolition of an over-framed roof that obscured the visitor center’s “spider legs,” replacement of incompatible punch windows with ribbon windows, and restoration of the exhibit hall’s floor-to-ceiling glazing.

Construction on the modernization began in late 2025 and is anticipated to be completed in 2027. The revitalized complex will provide more inviting, efficient spaces for visiting, working, and living—preserving Neutra’s legacy and reaffirming the Painted Desert Community Complex as a landmark of modernist design in the American Southwest.

Project Team
Architecture and Interiors: Hennebery Eddy Architects, Inc.
Contractor: Stronghold Engineering, Inc.
Structural: DCI Engineers
Landscape: DHM Design Corporation
Civil: Calibre Engineering, Inc.
M/E/P: Interface Engineering MEP
Cost consultant: ACC Cost Consultants
Envelope: Professional Roof Consultants, Inc.
Client: National Park Service