Visitor Center

The Jurassic Park Visitors Center was a fictional visitors' center at the hub of Jurassic Park, featured in the novel and 1993 movie of the same name as well as its game adaptations. The center was located at the zoo-like amusement park set up by billionaire John Hammond (founder of InGen) on the island of Isla Nublar (near Costa Rica). It was themed around dinosaurs and the center is the main hive of activity for guests visiting the park.

Exterior
The exterior of the building was made of gray limestone and follows an unusual concave curve. The lower front section, which had flowing water ducts and decorative foliage on either side, followed a convex curve and is split in half by the stairs, which led up to the main entrance door. To the left there was a wheel chair accessible route. On the door was the design of an egg with sun rays spawning from it on its surface. Around the door were fake engraved dinosaur fossils for effect. Six tall black tinted windows, three on either side, spanned the building along with plants. The top of the building had 3 thatched tiki-hut styled roofs with a larger one in the center to house the main entrance hall. The top also had guard rails, apparently for use as some kind of observation deck. The Visitor Center was inseparable from the tour as the main vehicle garage is located in the basement. The tour cars exit the visitor center via the left side arm from the alcove. Lush rainforest trees surrounded the area along with an observation pond and a field off to the far left.

Either arm extended out and would have double doors that would lead to the alcoves visible from the outside. On the left side--opposite the rex's entrance area--the alcove served as a road from which the tour cars and other vehicles exit the garage. The double doors seen inside during the film would lead to a hallway bringing you down into the basement of the Visitor Center.

The opposite side--the one in which the rex enters--was not used as an exit for tour vehicles and most likely was meant as an employee only exit, but was never completed.

Briefly during the reboot sequence, a schematic of the VC could be seen. This, however, is not entirely accurate. It would seem that the blue prints input in the computer were not the most up to date and were lacking in several key facilities.

Skeletons
In the entrance hall of the Visitor Center two fossil dinosaurs were shown, a T-rex attacking a sauropod that was presumably a juvenile brachiosaurus.

In The Novel
In the novel, the building was described as being a tall, mainly glass, rotunda with a black metal frame. The movie version, on the other hand, had a more tropical/colonial theme. Neither buildings were complete, with construction work still taking place although the film was meant to be less complete than the book.

The Visitor Center also features a closed-circuit Television network which would broadcast certain areas of the park (presumably the pens and habitats of the featured dinosaurs). Each Channel for a different Dinosaur Area:


 * Channel 2: Hypsilophodont Highlands
 * Channel 3: Triceratops Territory
 * Channel 4: Sauropod Swamp
 * Channel 5: Carnivore Country
 * Channel 6: Stegosaurus South
 * Channel 7: Velociraptor Valley
 * Channel 8: Pterosaur Peak

In The Film
The movie version, on the other hand, had a more tropical/colonial theme. Neither buildings were complete, with construction work still taking place although the film was meant to be less complete than the book. The main hall was only shown for a minimum time and was still under construction. The control room and the lab could be seen through an introduction ride called the Showcase Theater.

Interior
Inside was the main entrance hall, leading off to different parts of the building. There was a staircase leading to the balcony walk way and above that were glass windows bringing light into the hall. The middle of the hall showed two museum quality dinosaur skeletons replicas, one a Tyrannosaurus rex and the other a sauropod, suspended by cables in a fighting pose. Once again the hall was made of limestone with wood edges and the floor was laid with black marble. At the rear of the room was a long illuminated wall length painting of dinosaurs in their natural habitat. The rear also led to the restaurant and gift shop. A banner hung across the hall with the words, "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth."

Again the interior was still under construction.

The main mural seen in the background, blown up and printed onto transparent windows, was actually three 8 1/2 by 11 paintings painted by the famous naturalist painter Doug Henderson, depicting life in the Jurassic period. The ones on either sides of the doors (one is a gallimimus, the other a group of Brachiosaurs) were two of the paintings while the other is the main center mural.

The black and white mural in the dinning area behind the buffet was actually a painting that is based off of Picaso's 'Guernica.' In this case, instead of people, Dinosaurs are in their places.

Rooms located within the Visitor Center

 * Cretaceous Cafe - The restaurant located inside.
 * Visitor Center Kitchen - Where the food is cooked.
 * Gallimimus Gift Shop - The gift shop.
 * Control Room - Security room.
 * Cold Storage Room - Where the geneticists work and also where the embryos are stored.
 * Emergency Bunker - A bunker hidden underground.
 * Garage - Where the cars are kept when not in use.

In The Game
thumb|300px|right The Visitor's Center is featured in Telltale's Jurassic Park: The Game, it is exactly the same as the movie version.

It eventually suffers additional damage after the events of the film. The top rotunda is bitten and broken while front entrance to the Center is broken as a Tyrannosaurus rex breaks through it.

Operation Genesis
In Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis the visitor centre is part of the entrance. It is basically the same, except the tyrannosaur fossil replica above the door is replaced by a spinosaur replica.

Damage


During the dinosaur breakout, the building incurred extensive damage. The main hall was nearly destroyed when Velociraptors entered the building and climbed onto the skeleton formation, buckling them and bringing them crashing to the ground. All the skeletons were destroyed. A T. rex also caused damage in the hall. The theater window suffered several bullet holes by Dr. Alan Grant while he shot at the Velociraptors trying to burst through into the control room, which was covered by glass as the Velociraptor broke through and consequently shattered the window.

Production locations

 * Exterior: Valley House Plantation Estate, Kealia, Kauai, Hawaii.
 * Interior: Universal Studios Hollywood, CA.
 * Visitor center lobby and rotunda: stage 12.
 * Visitor center kitchen: stage 24.
 * Visitor center control room, theatre, and dinosaur hatchery: Stage 28.
 * V.I.P. dining room and visitors' dining room: unknown stage at Universal Studios, Hollywood, CA.

Real-life Jurassic Park Visitors Center
See Jurassic Park Discovery Center for a complete description

Universal Orlando Resort's Islands of Adventure theme park in Florida has the Jurassic Park Discovery Center, a real-life version of the Visitors Center from the film. The center is modeled after the film's center, but is quite different.

The outside of the center has, instead of windows like in the film, a 3D mural embedded in the wall of Jurassic scenery. Inside, a large mural extends across the front wall containing several dinosaur species in a realistic artist impression of a Jurassic period forest, ocean, and field. Visitors who enter the front of the center and enter the main rotunda will see several skeletal mock-ups of Tyrannosaurus rex, Apatosaurus, and a Pteranodon. The "Center" connects to a Jurassic-Park themed playground, and houses a dining area and a gift-shop on the second floor.

Trivia

 * In the raptor attack scene it says raptors can open doors but the Visitor Center's dome does not have the doors like the kitchen does. Therefore the raptors shouldn't be able to get in. Unless if there are any explanations, then it remains unclear of how the raptors were able to get inside.
 * They probably got in through the wall that was under construction like the Tyrannosaurus did.

External links and references

 * Jurassic Park Official Site
 * Jurassic Park River Adventure
 * Jurassic Park Legacy - Jurassic Park Encyclopedia