NASA's Langley Research Center is comprised of nearly 200 facilities on 764 acres in Hampton, Virginia, and employs about 3,400 civil servants and contractors. Langley works to make revolutionary improvements to aviation, expand understanding of Earth’s atmosphere and develop technology for space exploration.
As a result of NASA Langley’s more than 100 years of major contributions to aerospace research, testing and development, the NASA Langley Research Center Historic District was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register in December 2011 and the National Register of Historic Places in June 2012.
The historic district comprises the entirety of the centre as well as several of the original National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) facilities now located at and owned by Joint Base Langley Eustis. Numerous past and present facilities at Langley are considered historically significant as resources contributing to the historic district or as resources individually eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
Over the years, a number of historic facilities at the centre have been demolished. The decision to demolish a historic facility is determined based on numerous factors, including the facility’s usefulness or obsolescence, ability to be adaptively reused for other purposes, and costs required to maintain the facility. Undertakings affecting historic facilities, including demolition, require consultation with the Virginia State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).
NASA Langley has executed three separate agreement documents with the SHPO and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP). Two Memoranda of Agreement (MOAs) and one Programmatic Agreement (PA) contain stipulations for developing and maintaining information on the centre’s public website as a component of mitigating impacts resulting from the demolition of historic facilities. NASA has also entered into a PA with the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers and ACHP to address the effects on the agency’s National Historic Landmarks. Additional components of mitigation include intensive surveys and photographic documentation of the facilities kept on file with the SHPO, provision of artifacts as museum exhibits, and incorporation of building elements into new construction projects.