Colorado Freedom Memorial Visitor Center

The Colorado Freedom Memorial (CFM) Visitor Center is a community gathering space and place of reverence for visitors making the journey to honor Coloradans who lost their lives in combat. The visitor center will complement the CFM, originally designed by Kristoffer Kenton, managing principal for architecture at Galloway, by incorporating the same contemplative nature and consideration for the fallen and their families.

Kenton thoughtfully designed the CFM to create a site of reflection, meditation, and remembrance. The memorial is rigid and angled, which was influenced by the organic shapes of the mountain range beyond.

Galloway provided architecture, civil engineering, surveying, interior design, landscape architecture, structural engineering, and MEP engineering, to design a state-of-the-art visitors’ facility that includes spaces for educational opportunities, recognition for the lives lost, and expressions of pride by loved ones for the more than 6,000 Coloradans whose names line the walls of the memorial.

Kenton envisions the visitor center as an opportunity to further honor the memory of the fallen soldiers and a place for their loved ones to grieve, heal, and celebrate the lives of those lost. The Visitor Center building is oriented toward the memorial, which is visible from the second level balcony with the Rocky Mountains in the foreground.

A walking path connects the Visitor Center to the memorial, with steps around the building providing additional seating. These elements create a connection between built spaces and offer visitors places to pause and reflect.

There is also a reflection room for visitors who may need a private, peaceful area to grieve. The reflection room has soft, dimmable light, translucent interior wall panels for privacy and to allow natural light to shine through, and views of a Japanese Maple tree directly in front of the tinted exterior window for biophilic calmness.

Skylights and glazing (large glass panels) allow natural light into the exhibit hall, creating a soft ambiance to ease visitors’ emotions. The exhibit hall has artifact displays, a loaned display of 9/11 steel from the World Trade Center, and a display of a steel relic from the USS Arizona.

To honor the different branches of the military, the classroom is adorned with windows colored army gold, Marine Corps scarlet, and navy blue. The classroom and the 150-seat amphitheater are used for lectures, films, and events.

More news about this project at:
CBS Colorado (8.2.23)
The Sentinel (3.6.23)