The NCAR Mesa Laboratory, designed by architect I. M. Pei, is set high above Boulder, CO, against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The laboratory is a striking, futuristic structure, but its design was influenced by the ancient Indian cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. It was Pei's intention to create a building that would harmonize with its dramatic backdrop, the soaring rock formations called the Flatirons.
