Visitor Center at the Art Omi Pavilions at Chatham

The Pavilions at Art Omi will provide a venue for 12-16 highly distinguished artists and collectors to create legacy stand-alone exhibitions of their work in a setting that they control and help design. The Pavilions are situated on a hillside comprising approximately 190 acres near Chatham, New York, well positioned along the destination art route that includes Storm King, Dia:Beacon, ArtOmi Ghent, The Clark, and MASS MoCA.

The proposed Visitor Center at the Art Omi Pavilions at Chatham is intended to anchor the Pavilion experience and serve as a resource for the surrounding community. It will welcome art lovers, be a gracious place for the staff to work, and be a home for Art Omi’s ongoing art education initiatives. The building will include a café, gallery, offices, and the education center. The Visitor Center’s distinctive overhanging roof will shelter a flexible outdoor terrace, available for public event programming and more informal use by visitors to enjoy extraordinary western views of the Catskill mountains. (We expect sunsets to be popular.)

The 5,700-sf building is conceived as a gateway-or trailhead-to the path that links the artists’ pavilions. By framing the view, and reinforcing the site’s linear ridge, it will heighten an awareness of the natural setting, and serve as an invitation to explore further. To that end, its materials have been selected to be sustainable, elemental, and contextually resonant. The timber structure, for example, brings the warmth of wood to the interior and evokes the forest, while the zinc standing-seam cladding is similar in tonality to the shale substrate, which itself surfaces the walking path. The goal for this facility and for the overall project, is to weave together art, architecture, and landscape for public benefit.