US Olympic and Paralympic Museum / Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Accessibility, From the earliest stages of design, the team consulted a committee of Paralympic athletes and persons with disabilities to ensure that, from the entrance to exit, all visitors with or without disabilities could tour the USOPM facility together and share a common path. After they have been oriented, all visitors ascend to the top floor by elevator. Ramps guide visitors down a gentle-grade downhill circulation path that enables easier movement. Ramps have been widened to 6 feet to accommodate the side-by-side movement of two visitors including a wheelchair. Beyond ensuring all code and ADA requirements were rigorously met, material details including glass guardrails in the atrium for low-height visibility, cane guards integrated into benches, smooth floors for easier wheelchair movement, and lose seating in the café optimize the shared experience.

Façade. The façade consists of over 9,000 folded anodized diamond-shaped aluminum panels, each unique in shape and size. The taut skin wraps four overlapping petal-like volumes that spiral around the internal structure. Each metallic panel is animated by the extraordinary light quality in Colorado Springs, producing gradients of color and shade that give the building another sense of motion and dynamism.

Structure. The primary structural systems consist of a steel frame superstructure, drilled shaft caisson foundations, and cast-in-place concrete lateral cores.