Born in the first decade of the Cold War, the United States Air Force Academy provided the service with a steady supply of officers in a period of rapid expansion of the military's air arm. In the face of technological advances, including a burgeoning nuclear arsenal, it educated those officers for the increasingly complex demands of military leadership. In addition, the campus, by Skidmore Owings Merrill (SOM), ranks among the finest examples of modern movement architecture commissioned by federal agencies during the post World War II era. It was a controversial break with the traditional architecture of West Point and Annapolis, the military academies of the Army and Navy.

Information provided by the National Registry of Historic Places, a program of the National Park Service