The firm of Eyerman, Csala, Hapeman & Handman of Wilkes-Barre, PA, was commissioned to design the new 6,000-square-foot Visitors' Center, which houses offices for the park manager, park rangers and the park educational specialist. "The overall design goal was to meet the client's program of creating a new park office and Visitors' Center that provided an appropriate identity for the Ricketts Glen State Park," said Partner-in-Charge Carl J. Handman, AIA. "We also wanted to establish a regional architectural design theme that could be repeated in other park buildings."

As part of the "Growing Green" program, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources requested that the design include local and recycled materials. Therefore, the architects chose Pennsylvania Bluestone and slate for the majority of the Visitors' Center's design. "We chose the stone because it is reasonably indigenous to the area, as it is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania," said Handman. "Part of the Pennsylvania 'Growing Green' program is to design more sustainable buildings. I feel that part of sustainability depends on where the stone comes from -- if it is coming from 100 miles away in a truck or if it is several thousand miles via containership. We also wanted to produce an ecologically sound building."