Storm King Art Center Launches $45 million Capital Project to Sustain Leadership in Art and Landscape

Storm King Art Center is set to embark on an ambitious capital project to enhance and sustain into the future the extraordinary experience of art and nature it offers its visitors, artists, and community. Breaking ground later this year and due to be completed in 2024, the project comprises a new Welcome Sequence with consolidated parking and accessible amenities; the construction of a Conservation, Fabrication, and Maintenance Building; and a holistic approach to landscape stewardship and environmental sustainability.

For more than 60 years, Storm King’s vision of art in nature has inspired visitors and artists alike. The $45 million capital project represents a significant commitment to creatively improve and preserve the Art Center’s 500-acre site, securing its unique landscape for decades to come. To realize this vision, the Art Center is working with a global team of consultants, including project partners heneghan peng architects, from Dublin, New York-based WXY architecture + urban design, and landscape architecture firms Gustafson Porter + Bowman, of London, and Reed Hilderbrand of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Connecticut.

John P. Stern, Storm King President, said: “Storm King is unlike anywhere else. Large-scale sculpture, trees, mountains—the combination is stunning. For people seeing it for the first time, that feeling of joy from a new experience can be life changing. This ambitious capital project enriches the absolute best things about Storm King while helping chart our path to a more sustainable future. 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.”

A new Welcome Sequence will meet visitors’ immediate needs upon arrival with a series of accessible pavilions offering hospitality and essential amenities—orientation, restrooms, and group gathering spaces—in an easy-to-navigate parking area rich with natural landscaping. This new area will also eliminate visitors’ encounters with cars while exploring the Art Center by removing the parking lots within the grounds and consolidating visitor parking to a forested edge of the site.

Each pavilion will be thoughtfully detailed and constructed of natural materials to maximize functionality while remaining deferential to the landscape and art. The landscape itself will be carefully shaped and populated with native plants that intuitively guide visitors through an outdoor lobby and into the grounds. The pathways throughout are designed for universal accessibility. This seamless transition from entry to exploration focuses attention from image to activity, removing distractions and facilitating the experience of being in nature.

A new Conservation, Fabrication, and Maintenance Building will create a facility to expand the Art Center’s ability to realize extraordinary projects and its support of artists’ visions on a grand scale. As a purpose-built structure conceived as a venue for creative collaboration, the building will serve as a workshop, studio, mechanical shop, storage space, and office. This flexible and highly functional space will support the work that has made Storm King the preeminent place for outdoor art. In addition to housing conservation efforts for Storm King’s most valued sculptures, the space will also be a home for creating and fabricating new work, particularly for exhibitions and the annual Outlooks program.

Like the Welcome Sequence, the Conservation, Fabrication, and Maintenance Building is designed with thoughtfully chosen materials and is sited to fit seamlessly within the landscape. Its location at the southern edge of Storm King further supports the project’s vision of prioritizing art and landscape at the heart of the grounds while providing room for the year-round conservation and fabrication program to grow.

To further support Storm King’s collaboration with artists, parking lots within the grounds will be repurposed into landscapes for art. New meadowed areas in the north and south naturally extend existing spaces for art while providing a platform for exhibitions, temporary installations, and public programming, as well as revealing additional sight lines of Storm King’s forested edge.

Storm King launched a $44.5 million campaign in 2017 and has raised $43.5 million to date from more than 50 individuals and private foundations.