Studio Gang's performing arts center for Hudson Valley Shakespeare breaks ground

A new permanent home for Hudson Valley Shakespeare, a professional non-profit theater company, recently broke ground in Garrison, N.Y. The Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center includes a 14,850 sf performance venue that will serve as a permanent home for the theater company known for its sweeping open-air productions of classics and new works. The theater, located 80 minutes north of Manhattan, is set against the backdrop of the Hudson River and the surrounding landscape of a 98-acre campus.

The structure will be the first public purpose-built LEED Platinum theater in the United States and is the centerpiece of a design with extensive green space and rewilding across the campus, a former golf course. Designed by Studio Gang, the facility will be a singular theatrical destination for New York and the wider performing arts community and a cultural anchor for Hudson Valley, while providing the company with greater versatility for actors, audiences, and back-of-house operations. It will extend the viable performance season into the fall.

The theater’s curved, timber-framed grid shell and timber columns emerge from the landscape to create a dialogue with the Hudson Highlands. The stage’s proscenium arch is oriented to frame picturesque views of the Wey-Gat (Dutch for “Wind Gate”) of Storm King Mountain, the Hudson River, and Breakneck Ridge, and allows actors to use the existing topography to emerge from the landscape. Anchored by an open-air theater, the program is spread across several pavilions that include a back-of-house facility, a concession building, and public restrooms.

Each pavilion is clad in natural materials evoking the minerality of the region. Outdoor gathering spaces adjacent to the theater encourage visitors to connect with each other in an extraordinary natural setting, while a nearby overlook offers an intimate space for pre- and post-performance programming.

The landscape design rehabilitates the former golf course to restore native grasses and wetlands supporting biodiversity and decreased resource use. Nearly 14 acres of new plantings will include 250 native or adaptive trees, native grasses, forbs, and perennials, and bioretention areas that collect and filter stormwater runoff. The landscape is designed as an experiential sequence. Upon arrival to a gravel parking area, visitors encounter a mix of unpaved and accessible paths that guide them up and through native meadows, immersing them in nature and providing views out to the Wind Gate, and ultimately leading to the hilltop theater and gathering areas.

Much of the site was left open for future walking trails or other community uses, while 25,000 sf of picnic lawns, shaded by new native trees, offer an abundance of vantage points to take in the view and enjoy pre-show programming. The design employs several features to enhance environmental performance, including natural ventilation and brise soleil systems, low embodied carbon structure and cladding, and rooftop solar panels.

Project Team
Owner and/or developer: Hudson Valley Shakespeare
Design architect: Studio Gang
Architect of record: Studio Gang
MEP engineer: Buro Happold
Structural engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
General contractor/construction manager: Consigli Construction