Design work has now commenced on the MRO Visitor Center & Maintenance Facility. URS Corporation and SMPC Architects will provide the engineering and architectural design services. With approval from NM-DOT, a contract was signed and a kick-off meeting took place on Monday, February 13th. This was followed by a site visit and conceptual design workshop at the MRO Offices on the New Mexico Tech campus on February 16th.
The MRO Visitor Center & Maintenance Facility will be located at the observatory site in the Magdalena Mountains. The building will be approximately 5500 square feet with both public spaces for visitors to the research site as well as storage and maintenance space for the observatory’s heavy equipment and road maintenance fleet. The MRO
keeps Forest Road 235 open year-round to support operations at the observatory.
The design of the facility is scheduled for completion in June of 2012, with construction starting in August of 2012. The building will be complete by October of 2013.