Storm King Art Center in Windsor, New York, is embarking on a $45 million capital project that will result in substantial enhancements to its open-air museum facility. The plan calls for a new “Welcome Sequence,” featuring consolidated parking and accessible amenities; the construction of a building dedicated to conservation, fabrication, and maintenance; and the assumption of a holistic approach to landscape stewardship and environmental sustainability. The project is expected to be completed in 2024.
“This ambitious capital project enriches the absolute best things about Storm King while helping chart our path to a more sustainable future,” said Storm King president John P. Stern. “It allows us to advance all areas of our work and mission; to support our growing community of visitors, artists, and staff; and to preserve our extraordinary site and collection for future generations.”
The “Welcome Sequence” will comprise an easily navigable parking area surrounded by natural landscaping and featuring a series of accessible pavilions offering hospitality and basic amenities. The sequence is engineered to guide visitors through an outdoor “lobby” and onto the park’s grounds. Of note, the consolidated parking means visitors will no longer encounter cars and parking lots as they explore Storm King’s grounds, as they previously did. The extant parking lots will be transformed into landscapes for art. The new conservation, fabrication, and maintenance building will contain a workshop, a studio, a mechanical shop, storage space, and an office. The structure will accommodate the conservation of Strom King’s sculptures as well as the fabrication of new works, especially those destined for exhibitions and for the center’s annual “Outlooks” program.
The project is being realized through a partnership between Dublin-based heneghan peng architects; New York–based WXY architecture + urban design; landscape architecture firms Gustafson Porter + Bowman, of London; and Reed Hilderbrand of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New Haven. “I am thrilled that the design for our capital project reinforces a vision for Storm King that dramatically heightens our ability to support artists and make space for visitors to have their own specific, wonderous, and thoughtful experiences on-site,” said Nora Lawrence, Storm King’s artistic director and chief curator. “It makes possible what until now were just imagined opportunities.”
