by Linda G. Miller
AIANY has collaborated with The Olana Partnership and the American Society of Landscape Architects New York Chapter to present “Follies, Function & Form: Imagining Olana’s Summer House.” The exhibition of original concept sketches by 21 architects and landscape architects is co-curated by AIANY Vice President for Professional Development Jane Smith, AIA, IIDA, partner and founding principal of Spacesmith, and Mark Prezorski, Olana’s landscape curator.
Olana was originally the home of Hudson River School painter and self-taught architect and landscape designer Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900). The home, set amidst 250-acres of unrivaled views of the Hudson Valley, was designed by Church with Calvert Vaux, and is noted for its mixture of Victorian architectural elements and Middle Eastern decorative motifs. The 1886 “Plan of Olana, created by Church’s son Frederic Joseph Church, indicated the location of a summer house, but not its design. While preservation efforts saved the main house, now a National Historic Landmark administered by the New York State Office of Parks and Recreation, no structures or physical evidence of the summer house remain.
Organizers invited participating architects, landscape architects, and designers to imagine what the structure might look like, resulting in an exhibition presenting fantastically diverse interpretations of the folly. Participants include: Mary Burnham, AIA, founding partner of Murphy Burnham & Buttrick Architects; Randy Correll, AIA, partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Joan Krevlin, FAIA, partner at BKSK Architects; Tom Krizmanic, AIA, principal at STUDIOS Architecture and Center for Architecture President; and Hayes Slade, AIA, principal at Slade Architecture and co-chair of the AIANY Interiors Committee. “Follies, Function & Form” will be on view at the Coachman’s House Gallery at the Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, NY, from 08.14 to 11.13.16.