Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, Maryland

One of  the most elaborate and startling wildlife refuge visitor centers in the country can be found at the Patuxent Research Refuge, a 13,000 acre woodland north of Washington DC, and the largest natural area in close proximity to the city. Patuxent was the nation’s first major wildlife research station, established in the 1930’s (adjacent to the larger National Agricultural Research Center), and it has a history of research on bird migration and waterfowl habitat. The refuge more than doubled in size in the 1990’s as it absorbed some of the Fort Meade, including several firing ranges still in use today. With the institutionalization of basic environmental principles in the 1970’s, educational outreach became part of the mission of the Center, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates the facilities at Patuxent, began planning a National Wildlife Visitor Center to reflect their programs, and as an attraction to draw the public away from the restricted areas of the refuge’s lands. The largest science and environmental education center in the Department of the Interior finally opened in 1994, though much of the alarmist environmental urgency of the 1970’s remains intact in the displays. The visitor center is a labyrinth of highly designed display spaces, which create an atmosphere of immediate environmental doom amid a haunted and fleeting natural world.