A $7.7 million visitor center that celebrates the groundbreaking science of Hanford LIGO – for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory – has wrapped up at the Hanford site north of Richland.

The LIGO Hanford Exploration Center, or LExC, at 127124 N. Route 10 will host visitors and up to 10,000 students per year to learn more about the work of the Hanford observatory. LExC is next to the actual observatory, a giant L-shaped listening station, at the U.S. Department of Energy site.

The design tells the story of how LIGO Hanford and a twin observatory in Livingston, Louisiana, detected gravity waves that emanated from colliding black holes 1.3 billion light years from earth. The work netted the three key principals the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics.

The building’s footprint echoes the swirl of waves spiraling away from a center in evenly space Archimedean spirals.

Pasco architect Terence “Tere” Thornhill and DGR Grant Construction teamed up to pitch the idea to LIGO, which is owned and operated by CalTech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The state-funded center is designed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver rating criteria. It opens in January.

Google Maps has an up-to-date aerial image of the observatory and LExC for those wanting to see more.