Visitor Center for Las Campanas Observatory, La Serena, Chile

Date of Sketch: August 22, 2010

On a hilltop in the coastal city of La Serena will be the embarkation point for Las Campanas Observatory where the Giant Magellan Telescope, the world's largest optical instrument, is being built.  As in Higdon's composition, "blue cathedral", which she wrote in memory of her brother, the structure is sited between earth and sky and serves "as a symbolic doorway into and out of this world."  The Visitor Center previews the experience of space travel through observation as the visitor moves upward through the structure towards a distant star.