Coolest Colorado Building: US Olympic & Paralympic Museum

Colorado Springs, home of the big box building, is now home to one of the coolest new buildings in the United States—the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum.

The sleek building, celebrating the Olympic athlete, twists and stretches pinwheel-like around a central three-story atrium with radiating galleries filled with Olympic memorabilia and interactive exhibits. The exterior is stunning with thousands of diamond-shaped satin aluminum panels that shimmer in the moving sunlight.

The building, rising southwest of the downtown boxes, sits alongside the railroad tracks. A futuristic bridge, still under construction, will connect the museum to America the Beautiful Park to the west.

I haven’t been to the museum yet. It’s kind of pricey and my usual museum companion isn’t available, so I may have to go alone and check it out this month.

I’ve always been an Olympic junkie and can’t wait to check out the exhibits like the scoreboard from the Lake Placid Olympics in 1980 when Team USA dumped the Soviet hockey machine and then went on to win the gold medal game against Finland.

I shot this photograph of the gleaming building on a sunny afternoon a few days ago in mid-November.

Buildings in downtown Colorado Springs etch the horizon beyond the Olympic and Paralympic Museum. Photograph © Stewart M. Green