Hudson River Valley:
Annandale-on-Hudson - Bard College Frank Gehry’s
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Not to be missed is a visit to the Frank
Gehry designed The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at
Bard College. Frank Gehry chose brushed stainless steel for the exterior of the
Fisher Center so that the sculptural building would reflect light and color
from the pastoral landscape. The unusual shape of the Fisher Center grew out of
the design for the two interior theaters which it houses together with four rehearsal studios for dance,
theater, and music, and professional support facilities.
Annandale-on-Hudson: Bard College
– Olafur Eliasson’s Parliament of
Reality installation. Olafur
Eliasson’s Parliament of Reality
installation at Bard College consists of a circular pond approximately
135 feet in diameter surrounded by a ring of 24-planted trees. Nestled in the
center of the pond is a circular island, paved with individual stones that
inscribe a twelve-point pattern derived from the meridian lines of nautical
charts and the compass. The island is accessed via a stone bridge covered by a
steel latticework tunnel. Based on the island’s floor, the tunnel’s design is
composed of a series of ellipses, which gradually intensify toward the point
where the bridge and island meet. As visitors cross the bridge, the tunnel’s
design appears to gradually shift, providing a symbolic temporal experience
evocative of the work’s overall conceptual goals. Large, smooth boulders
situated in two rows around the outer rim of the island provide seating.