Here’s a view of the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, taken from the Bisnow Blimp. The site was was heavily damaged by a wildfire last summer; last week saw the topping out of a new 14k SF visitors center, part of the first phase of reconstruction. It will open in August along with a zip line across the gorge and an aerial gondola. Denver-based Beck Group is handling design and construction.

Project architect Jon Mindrup tells us that the most challenging aspect of the design was creating a building in a way that focuses attention on the natural beauty of the gorge, rather than to the building itself. (We feel the same way every time we leave the house. Our beauty shouldn't take away from nature.) He says the Beck Group did this by creating a “sequence of framed views” that allow visitors to see the gorge from a perspective that hasn’t been seen before.