Stonehenge Visitor Center Opens

Three days might not seem like much time when considered over the course of three decades, but the new Stonehenge Visitor Center is opening on December 18, just in time for the winter solstice. Since the ancient rock formation is considered a solar calendar and is well frequented during the solstices and equinoxes, the timing is intentional, even though the project has been in the works for 30 years and gone through numerous architects over that time.

The building that is opening 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) west of Stonehenge is designed by Australia's Denton Corker Marshall, which has worked on the project for a dozen years. And even though the distance from the stones may seem remote, the location allows the landscape near the stones (trilithons, more precisely) to be unencumbered by cars and modern buildings. The previous 1960s visitor center was designed to handle 100,000 visitors per year, but recent estimates put that number closer to 1 million.

Denton Corker Marshall's design places two boxy volumes with exhibition space, a cafe, a shop, and education spaces underneath a large roof propped up by slender pilotis, the antithesis of Stonehenge's massive stones.