The proposal was to design a visitors center and small museum to support Frederic Church's home and studio on the Hudson River, Olana. The site was given as being at the base of the hill where Olana is located. Inspired by Church"s own notion of creating viewscapes by building roads to various sites, the proposal was driven by the notion of path, light, view and landscape. The views along the ridge would be selectively framed, acting as previews to the even more astounding viewshed from Olana. Side paths would lead to spaces that create an opening to understanding and appreciating the drama of the landscape of the Hudson River Valley and the life and vision of Frederic Church and the Hudson River School. The path will provide opportunities for leisurely diversion or a more deliberate experience. A working byway, it will act as a spatial passage linking the various aspects of the building and the landscape. Interior and exterior will be treated with equal importance and have a reciprocal dynamic, blurring the edge between inside and outside and creating a unique interstitial space. Texture under foot with gardens as meditation points will weave the visual with the aural and tactile, nurturing the personal connection to the land and thus to the essence of the place. The dramatic landscape paintings of Frederic Church and his colleagues depicted light as a natural phenomena, real and not imagined, influencing the mood and character of the natural environment. The materiality of light will be cultivated through filters, shifting screens, apertures that focus the eye. Light will be a tool of the architecture, transforming the experience of the viewer and seducing them further along the path.
