Inside the newly renovated Wolf Trap, the only national park that exists solely to host concerts

When they hear the term “national park,” most people probably don't think of Trey Anastasio doing a guitar solo or Nas performing “NY State of Mind.” But at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, both of those things, and more, happened over the summer.

Located in Washington, D.C., a suburb of Vienna, Va., Wolf Trap is the only national park that is also a performing arts center and exists solely to be a venue. The centerpiece of the park, the 7,000-capacity Filene Center amphitheater, hosts more than 70 musical performances each season, the 2024 edition of which concluded last month with a two-day performance by James Taylor.

This season, the park also introduced a collection of new and updated facilities. Because it is located on designated federal land, this new construction was commissioned to blend aesthetically with the pre-existing structures and overall feel of the park. The staff even meticulously documented the areas that were renovated to expand Wolf Trap's historical record.

“Everything we build will belong to the American people,” says Wolf Trap's president/CEO Arvind Manoha. “There are a lot of checks and balances to make sure what we're doing is permanent and meets a standard that's consistent with the ideals of how federal land is managed.”

Construction on the common areas began the day after the final performance of the 2023 season, with improvements to seating, picnic pavilions, artist areas and more. The centerpiece of the development is the Meadow Commons, an impressive wood-paneled facility that opened in May. Replacing a concession stand as old as the 53-year-old park itself, the new facility features picnic terraces, expanded dining options, modern bathrooms, meeting spaces and elevators that make this area of ​​the park more accessible to guests with mobility impairments. The team also used locally sourced timber, installed low-flow toilets, swapped plastics for bamboo tableware and paper straws, installed a wastewater management plan that takes local waterways into account, and built around a pair of 100-year-old trees.

Designed by the architectural firm Gensler, whose global projects include the renovation of Hollywood's Egyptian Theater and the construction of Nevada's Grand Sierra Resort Reno Arena, the Wolf Trap updates began during the pandemic and were done in an architectural style that compliments the Filene Center — which has a striking Brutalist design and is clad in Douglas fir — and other pre-existing buildings. Some of these structures date back to when the land was not a site or park, but a working farm. “I would say it's contemporary with a rustic heart,” says Manocha of the overall design aesthetic.

Behind the scenes, an earlier phase of construction reshaped the artists' district, which Monacha knew — from his time as COO of the LA Phil Association, which oversees the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Hall in Los Angeles — is something artists pay attention to. (Indeed, when Bonnie Raitt took the stage during a performance in June 2022, the first thing she said to the audience was, “Look what they did for us back there!”) Wood that previously covered the exterior of the Filene Center was recycled to cover walls in artists' dressing rooms, and a huge map shows artists the location of each National Park in the system. Manocha says artists now arrive early on show days so they can hike before playing.

Funding for these updates was raised through a private philanthropic campaign orchestrated by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a private 501(c)(3) that partners with the National Park Service to manage Wolf Trap. The campaign raised $75 million for site improvements and funding for the park, which also funds an artist training program and an educational program designed by Wolf Trap that is taught in preschools and child care centers across the country. On-site improvements such as Meadow Commons are essentially a gift to the park since these assets are on federal land and therefore cannot be owned by the Foundation.

Although beautiful, the land Wolf Trap sits on is not, in itself, extraordinary. You won't see red rock canyons, towering waterfalls or rolling sand dunes. Nor does the land have inherent historic value for the creation of the United States, like some 200 of the country's other national parks and monuments. Instead, the music and art provide Wolf Trap's raison d'être.

“The Park Service's mission is to be stewards of the fabric of American culture,” says Manocha. “In creating a national park for the arts, what the founders said [is] that art and creativity are part of the fabric of American culture. It is something that defines us as a people.”

Wolf Trap's origins date back to the mid-1960s and a woman named Catherine Shouse. Born in 1894 in Boston to the family that founded Filene's Department Store, Shouse was the first woman to receive a master's degree in education from Harvard. She later became a commendable women's rights activist and went on to work in various government sectors. President Calvin Coolidge appointed her to work on women's prison reform, and she subsequently served in every administration on a myriad of projects. He also owned a farm in Vienna, then a rural outpost of DC

When Dulles Airport opened 12 miles from Vienna in 1962, construction of the road connecting it to DC broke up Shouse's farmland by prominent sector. So in the mid-60s, he approached then-President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of the Interior Stuart Udall and told them he wanted to use the land for a public sanctuary that would combine art and nature. He asked that this area be designated as part of the National Park Service – established in 1916 with the creation of Yellowstone in Wyoming – to ensure a high level of care and permanent protection.

Shouse's requests were granted and Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts opened in the summer of 1971 with an inaugural performance by the New York City Opera. In the 53 years since then, the programming has diversified to include just about everything: The 2024 season included shows from Wilco, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Nas, Clint Black, TLC, Anastasio and many more.

“We program the National Park for music, and National Parks belong to all Americans,” says Manocha. “So we have an obligation for everyone in this region to feel that Wolf Trap belongs to them. I want people to feel like “there's something here that speaks to me.”

But since Wolf Trap is a designated National Park, things also work a little differently than in a typical area. Instead of police officers controlling the flow of traffic on show nights, the job is handled by park rangers and rangers in the park system's signature uniforms. The National Park Service also oversees the maintenance of the grounds, which include 120 acres of parkland, 90 acres of woodland, trails, and a large fishing pond. The Park Service is not involved in booking artists or other arts-related programming.

Of course, Wolf Trap isn't the only park that hosts concerts. Red Rocks Amphitheater is located within Red Rocks Park, which is owned and operated by the City of Denver. Lollapalooza is allowed to happen in Chicago's Grant Park. The 2,500-seat Blue Ridge Music Center is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park. But Wolf Trap is such an extreme given that concerts are literally its entire raison d'être. “It's not like we have to get permission to do a show in this park, because we are the park,” says Manocha. “Without the concerts, there is no park here.”