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i i Page 30 J G O Vas ALPROTECTIONAAD EARANCEMENT Protect and enhance the state's significant historic properties and resources . WRIGHT BROTHERS NATIONAL MEMORIAL VISITOR CENTER UPDATE With extensive assistance and support from a broad range of preservationists , scholars , and architects , the HPO continued efforts to assure the long-term preservation of the 'visitor center at the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk . Although its future is by no means assured, an important step was accomplished : evaluation of the visitor center as a contributing element of the Wright Brothers National Memorial site . As noted in last year ' s Legacy at Work , a report prepared in 1996 by the National Park Service ' s Atlanta regional office evaluated the visitor center as a non-contributing component of the Wright Brothers National Memorial site . The report stated that the building lacked the exceptional significance required for properties less than fifty years old . The HPO , along with preservationists nationwide , believe that the visitor center is of great significance to the state ' s architectural history . At the request of the HPO , the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places agreed to reconsider the evaluation of the visitor center and returned the documentation to the regional office for reconsideration . The HPO presented information and an evaluation for exceptional significance of the visitor center at the statewide level because of its importance as a modernist building of the period ca . 1945- 1965 . Built in 1959- 1960 , the visitor center was avery early work of the Philadelphia architectural firm of Mitchell/ Giurgola and earned national and international acclaim for its high- quality design and sensitivity to its site . In December 1997 the NPS regional office completed reevaluation and agreed with the HPO concerning the exceptional architectural importance of the building and its statewide level of significance . The amended documentation has been accepted by the National Register of Historic Places . This means that the visitor center is now subject to the protection afforded by National. Register listing . The reevaluation of the visitor center is a major step toward its future preservation , but it is only a step . Plans for the centennial celebration of manned flight in 2003 call for a large new visitor center on a different part of the site . Advocates of preservation of the building, which include fans from all parts of the nation as well as North Carolinians , will continue to make the case for the unique importance of this building to the state ' s twentieth-century heritage and for its preservation for future generations . -- Catherine W. Bishir