Adapt, React, Interact: 50 Years of Architecture at the HRM

In 1969, when the Hudson River Museum opened its new wing, the institution gained over 40,000 square feet of additional exhibition, art instruction, performance, and social space. It also gained a remarkable building, one of the most unique museum spaces in New York State, a hallmark of the so-called Brutalist style. Architect Richard Kaeyer of Sherwood, Mills & Smith designed the building in the typical Brutalist material of cast concrete, malleable, structurally sound and revolutionary for a museum at the time. The new building also signaled a break from earlier historical structures, looking towards the expanding roles of the Museum to the community of Yonkers and the greater Hudson River Valley.

Adapt, React, Interact highlights the surface, structure, and spaces of the 1969 wing, demonstrating how the building has engaged our visitors, hosted exhibitions, and framed the spectacular landscape of the Hudson River Valley and Yonkers from its perch in Trevor Park. Both Glenview, the Gilded Age Mansion and first location of the Hudson River Museum, and the 1969 extension sensitively enhance the majestic natural setting along the Hudson River.

Activating this remarkable building’s spaces through illustrations, archival photographs, and models, the exhibition tells the history of the wing through site-specific illustrations and didactics. As we celebrate the Museum’s 100th anniversary this year and plan our next phase of growth in the twenty-first century, Adapt, React, Interact offers a rare opportunity to study the last half-century of expansion, response, and engagement with the community specific to the Hudson River Museum.