BY PEPPER FISHER
Port Angeles – Olympic National Park Superintendent Sula Jacobs presented an update on the park at Tuesday’s City council meeting, and spoke primarily about what to expect at next week’s free public event at Field Arts and Events Hall in Port Angeles.
The National Park-sponsored event, scheduled from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. on January 14, is looking input on what the public would like to see in a new Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.
The meeting appears to have been designed as a part brainstorming session and part nostalgia trip for the beloved original lodge, which was lost to a fire in May of 2023.
Jacobs says park officials are asking visitors to bring their ideas, questions, and copies of old photos to contribute to a memory board honoring the original lodge.
She said the meeting will not be a presentation in the formal sense, but is meant to let people come and go as they like. She listed some of the questions they’d like folks to think about ahead of time.
“So some of the questions that you can expect to see, in case you are like me and you would like to plan ahead, is what makes Hurricane Ridge special to you? What do you remember most about the old Visitor Center? What worked best for you in the original Visitor Center? What didn’t? How would you describe your connection to the visitor center and the landscape around it? How did you use the original visitor center in the summer and in the winter? Very Different uses. And anything else you would like to share.”
The project is in the conceptual, pre-design phase. A design contract was awarded to Anderson Hallas Architects in September. Jacobs acknowledged that many generations of history should be considered in the new design.
“Yes, it was just a building. But it’s not the same thing as being just a building. When I have talked to people about the building, anybody who’s visited has said the same thing, “I remember”, and they tell me a story about, “I remember coming here with my grandparents. I remember coming here with my grandchildren. I remember this, I remember that. I remember skiing.” That building is not just a building. Hurricane Ridge means a lot to a lot of us. And what we want to do is make sure that whatever we put up there is proper. It’s not too big, it’s not too small. We’ve really got to like, you know, get it just right.”
If you can’t make it next Wednesday’s meeting at Field Arts and Events Hall, ideas and comments can also be submitted online at: parkplanning.nps.gov/ DayLodge_ListeningSession