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Artist Studio Campus Visitor Center

This proposal for a visitor center at Art Omi’s forthcoming ‘Pavilions’ site responds to the undulating ridge line site with a building that blends several versions of the prototypical “shed roof,” common in the agricultural structures of the Hudson Valley into a subtly curved roof set on a simple, rectangular building. This profile of the building, much like the ridge line that dominates the site, changes as visitors walk around the structure, part of a sequence that unfolds and reorients visitors to the view west over the Hudson Valley and Catskills.

While visually complex, the “curves” are created using ruled surfaces (repeated, straight lines that together form a curve). These forms are expressed on the inside as exposed glue- and cross-laminated timber framing, and as a standing-seam metal roof at the exterior, the linear textures of which quietly emphasize the building’s geometry.

The 10,000 SF structure contains galleries, offices, and a café for visitors to the complex, and was designed with a suite of sustainable strategies in mind, such as solar electric energy, ground-source geothermal for heating and cooling, as well as using the site’s unique topography to mitigate storm water run-off through the creation of bio-swales.