program: renovation and extension of the visitor center with expanded exhibit area, theater space, staff area, and new garden.
client: American Battle Monuments Commission
exhibit designer: Gallagher & Associates
landscape architect: Thalweg Paysage
size: 1,530 sq. ft.
construction cost: 1,310,000.00 €
delivery: June 2013

Drawn both by its historical significance and the natural beauty of the battlefield, Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument has become one of the most visited sites of the D-Day landings. The new Visitor Center has been designed as a dignified place of commemoration that acts as a gateway to the site, allowing visitors to discover the historic battlefield with a heightened sense of reflection.

The primary challenge for the architectural project was how to better integrate the existing building into the site, to transform the Center so that it would become an integral part of the visitor’s discovery of the site and natural landscape.

The architectural project extends into the surrounding Memorial Garden, designed as a place of rest and reflection for visitors. The landscape design makes use of plants typically found in Normandy hedgerows to create pockets of intimacy within the garden, and to tie the space and the building back into the surrounding landscape.