The Frederic Church Center A Hudson River School Vision
SEPTEMBER 2021
Frederic Church Center, aerial view rendering
Architecture Research Office/ Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Dear Supporters and Friends, As the United States’ most prominent landscape painter, Frederic Church defined our national identity as inextricably linked to the majesty of the natural world, with works such as Niagara (1857) and Twilight in the Wilderness (1860). At Olana, Church worked as architect and landscape architect, marrying aesthetic endeavor and environmental action by reforesting 250-acres of overworked land to create his home and designed landscape. Church engaged with these issues on a national level as a Commissioner of Central Park in the 1870s and by championing the first state park in the nation, the Niagara Reservation, in 1885. Bringing forward Frederic Church’s engagement with environmental conservation in the creation of Olana is fundamental to both Olana’s Strategic Landscape Design Plan and The Olana Partnership’s 2021-26 Strategic Plan. Architecture Research Office’s design of the Frederic Church Center directly addresses this goal. As the single-entry point for a National Historic Landmark and NYS Historic Site that attracts over 170,000 visitors annually, the Frederic Church Center will provide a highly visible, publicly accessible demonstration of sustainable design and carbon neutral construction. Itwill be the first public sector model of mass timber construction within the state and the first within the NYS Parks system. The building embraces wood as a sustainable material through its use of mass timber, which features a cross laminated timber (CLT) roof structural system as well as engineered wood columns and beams. These wood elements are exposed as the interior finishes, revealing their natural beauty, and reducing the need for other finish materials. The exterior walls of the building are clad in Accoya, a durable, natural wood product. The building envelope was designed and analyzed through energy modeling to perform with a high efficiency and durability by providing extensive insulation, limiting thermal bridging, and employing a rain screen cladding system. 2
Mass timber construction has dual benefits as a renewable resource and as a method for sequestering carbon and has great potential for stimulating the market for wood products in New York State. The project team is consulting with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Sustainable Resources Management group, whose goal is to implement a complete mass timber construction system that removes barriers, lowers costs, and reduces risk for this new industry. The mechanical system design utilizes all electric equipment with air-water heat pumps to provide heating and cooling to indoor fan coil units and the radiant floor. The domestic hot water is also designed around an all-electric building with on-demand heaters and low-flow restroom fixtures, ensuring that the building will not rely on fossil fuel energy. Electric consumption will be offset by an onsite solar array. All occupied interior spaces are daylit and the LED lighting and controls reduce energy consumption. Bird-friendly glazing reduces the risk of bird strikes. Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects and mechanical engineers Divney Tung Schwalbe have collaborated on the design of the site, including the new 45-car parking lot, which accommodates ADA parking and electric vehicle charging stations and charging points for TOP’s electric vehicles. The parking lot is planted with native palette of canopy trees, understory trees, shrubs and perennials, which provide an immersive woodland experience upon arrival. Over time, the canopy trees will reclose the clearing necessary for the construction of the facility and reintegrate the building into its woodland setting. The Frederic Church Center will transform the visitor experience and elevate public understanding of Olana as the national landmark at the intersection of art and environmental consciousness. Greenly Yours,
Sean Sawyer, Ph.D. Washburn and Susan Oberwager President
Frederic Church Center, arrival plaza and main visitor entry
Architecture Research Office/ Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
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Frederic Church Center, lobby with view to multi-purpose room
Architecture Research Office/ Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Partners in Sustainability Partnership and collaboration are fundamental to The Olana Partnership’s identity. In developing the Frederic Church Center project, we have an astute and committed partner in our Assemblymember, Didi Barrett. From the start, Didi has stressed how significant this project can be for applying sustainable, environmentally conscious design in a public context and has challenged us to reach higher. As we entered the final phase of design last year, she encouraged us to reach out to SUNY’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) in Syracuse and their Sustainable Resources Management Group (SRMG). From the first zoom call, SUNY-ESF’s President, Joanie Mahoney, and Prof. Paul Crovella of the SRMG have been enthusiastic champions of the project and resourceful partners connecting us to building technologies and potential funding to ensure that the Frederic Church Center will be a state-of-the-art public sector model for sustainable, carbon neutral design. 4
“The Frederic Church Center will be the first public sector demonstration of mass timber construction in New York State.” — Paul Crovella
SUNY-ESF Sustainable Resources Management Group Led by Professor Paul Crovella, the SRMG’s goal is to implement a complete mass timber construction system that removes barriers, lowers costs, and reduces risk for this new industry. Mass timber construction is opening new design possibilities as an energy-efficient alternative. Wood is a natural, renewable and sustainable material for building, with a lighter carbon footprint than steel or concrete. It has also proven to be structurally strong and meet the same performance and life safety standards as concrete and steel structures.
Q & A with Professor Paul Crovella What is Mass Timber construction? Mass Timber construction is a new way of building that combines the strength, safety, and efficiency of traditional wood construction methods with the beauty, longevity, and environmental benefits of sustainably grown timber. Mass timber, also known as engineered or composite wood, is made by binding layers of wood together with adhesives. This lamination process provides exceptional strength and stability and has a much lighter carbon footprint than concrete and steel.
What are the benefits of using Mass Timber? Our generation has reached a crossroads. While we need to continue to build for future generations, we can no longer ignore the environmental impact of the construction practices of the past. In addition to being a low-carbon alternative, mass timber can utilize small caliber trees and encourage forestry practices that maintain the health of our woodlands. It is also engineered to precise dimensions and structural performances standards and opens new design possibilities to create beautiful new structures, while allowing us to provide the proper stewardship of the environment for future generations.
How will The Frederic Church Center project support SUNY-ESF’s SMRG’s goals? The Frederic Church Center will be the first public sector demonstration of mass timber construction in New York State. I can’t imagine a better example to inspire others to use this exciting innovation in construction technology that will produce environmental and economic development benefits for our state. The building’s setting will connect individuals with the beauty of nature, and its design and construction will be in delicate harmony with Olana’s greater landscape. 5
Deforestation, reforestation... and a hemlock at Olana that lives on as art
Photo: Peter Aarons
“FALLEN”, an installation created by nationally-renowned artist Jean Shin
Photo: Peter Aaron/OTTO
When Frederic Church created Olana’s 250-acre naturalistic landscape, he planted thousands of native trees on a hillside that had been previously logged and deforested. His plantings included the eastern hemlock tree (Tsuga canadensis), a graceful native conifer that once thrived on the slopes of the nearby Catskill Mountains. In the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of hemlocks were cut down for the tanning industry, which used the tannin in the tree’s bark for commercial leather-making. The devastating loss of these evergreen forests would have been visible from Olana’s hilltop. Church responded to this loss by reforesting the landscape. Frederic Church, Trunks of Chestnut and Hemlock Trees, New York, 13 May 1845 oil on light brown cardboard, 12 5/16 x 11 7/8 in. Collection of Olana State Historic Site, Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, OL.1978.27
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“While reckoning with the devastating consequences of deforestation in local history, the project invites viewers to observe the natural surroundings more closely, witness nature’s struggles, and mourn what we have lost.”
- Jean Shin
A magestic hemlock tree on Olana’s East Lawn died of natural causes last year and, as part of an ongoing commitment to engage contemporary artists, The Olana Partnership commissioned the nationally-renowned artist Jean Shin to create a site-specific work in response to it’s loss. In a nod to the region’s industrial past, Shin used a patchwork of discarded leather from the fashion industry to encase the fallen trunk. “I’m curious how things become undesired and lose value”, Shin told The New York Times in a recent interview about the piece. The installation, entitled FALLEN, invites viewers to reflect on this tree’s life and the cultural history of this region. It will be on view through October 31 and is part of our larger 2021 collaborative exhibition, Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment. We are thrilled to be recognizing Jean with the Frederic Church Award. For more information please contact us.
Artist Jean Shin in Olana’s hemlock grove
Frederic Church, Fallen Hemlock Near Stockbridge, August 1847, graphite on light brown paper, 4 ½ x 7 7/16 in. Collection of Olana State Historic Site, Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, OL.1980.1380R
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Church commissioned Hudson artist Arthur Parton to depict the view from the top of his farm, near where he built his painting studio. This topographic view shows the heavily worked agrarian landscape prior to Church’s reforestation and creation of design features, including the lake. Arthur Parton, Looking Southwest Over Church’s Farm from the Sienghenbergh, 1864, oil on canvas, 12 7/8 x 24 ¼ in. Collection of Olana State Historic Site, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, OL.1981.20.A.
FREDERIC CHURCH CENTER FUNDRAISING $13.5 MILLION GOAL
$6 MILLION
THE OLANA PARTNERSHIP CAPITAL CAMPAIGN LEADERSHIP Joe Baker | Betsy Broun | Steve & Renee Clearman Margaret Davidson | David de Weese The Gubelmann Family | Meredith J. Kane Bindy & Stephen Kaye | Cynnie & Peter Kellogg David Kermani | Robin & David Key Michael & Barbara Polemis | David & Susan Rockefeller Emily Sachar | Hara Schwartz & Christopher Buck The Thompson Family Foundation Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky, MD | Sedgwick Ward Helen & Peter Warwick | Kelly Williams & Andrew Forsyth Susan Winokur & Paul Leach
STAFF
Sean E. Sawyer, Ph.D. Washburn & Susan Oberwager President ssawyer@olana.org $7.5 MILLION RAISED
Mark Prezorski Senior Vice President & Landscape Curator mprezorski@olana.org Jenny Pfister Major Gifts & Grants Coordinator jpfister@olana.org
THE OLANA PARTNERSHIP PO BOX 199 | HUDSON, NEW YORK 12534 - 0199 The Olana Partnership operates Olana State Historic Site in a cooperative agreement with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
OLANA.ORG • 518-828-1872 Cover: Frederic Church Center, view from Lakeside Terrace to West (Architecture Research Office/ Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects)