A new Hudson Valley destination opens for outdoorsy aesthetes

The Olana State Historic Site gives visitors one more reason to stay

While the town of Hudson gets all the love from design buffs in upstate New York, few visitors make it down the Hudson River to Olana, the wonderfully weird property transformed by landscape artist Frederic Church in the 19th century. This seems unfair and highly improbable considering Church’s manor, designed with dramatic and adoring Persian motifs by architect Calvert Vaux, peacocks on a lush forested hill with 360-degree views for miles. The sloping grounds are often furnished with complementary contemporary sculpture, and the house itself is a canvas for intricate tiling, stone carving, painting and variegated brickwork.

Yet Olana had a game-changing boost recently from its new visitors’ centre, dedicated to the artist, the house and the hundreds of Hudson Valley creatives who contributed to its allure over the years. Designed by Stephen Cassell, Kim Yao and Adam Yarinsky of the New York studio Architecture Research Office, it is the first new building put up on these 250 acres for 150 years. Meanwhile, the grounds have been restored by veteran landscape architects Nelson Byrd Woltz.

Positioned in a valley by the river, the Frederic Church Center for Art was completed late last year to offer visitors a vantage point for immersive views of the Hudson Valley wilderness, the cycles of nature and the iconic house. Understandably, the architects proffered an inconspicuous, low-slung volume, wrapped in glazing and red timber to minimise its presence on the horizon. This being a popular site for birders, a special coated glazing makes it visible to fauna.

At more than 400 square metres, the centre also encompasses an indoor-outdoor amphitheatre and café, and ties in with the paths and trails of the acreage. It all comes together ahead of the 200th anniversary of the artist’s birth, next year.

Photography: Nick Hubbard
Photography: Nick Hubbard
Photography: Nick Hubbard

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