The New & Improved HRM

The first phase of the Hudson River Museum’s long-awaited West Wing strategic capital improvement project broke ground in fall 2020. The project—made possible by funding totaling $12.28M from Westchester County, the City of Yonkers, and New York State—includes much-needed improvements including, for the first time, dedicated special exhibition galleries with exhilarating views of the Hudson River and Palisades, a central sculpture court, and a Community & Partnership Gallery to showcase for emerging artists and collaborations with cultural, educational and other nonprofit organizational partners throughout the region. In addition, the new wing will include necessary art storage space and a climate control system, which will ensure proper safekeeping of the Museum’s cultural heritage and provide space for collection growth.

Additionally, in summer 2022, a new roof was installed on the Museum’s existing 1969 building, its galleries and planetarium, ensuring high performance insulation and improving energy efficiency.

Tom D’Auria, HRM Board of Trustees Chair, expressed, “The Hudson River Museum is proud to move forward toward the completion of this long-planned project, a key component of the institution’s master plan. This capital project will enable us to bring a premier museum experience to all in Westchester and the metropolitan area.”

Masha Turchinsky, HRM Director and CEO, stated, “These exciting capital enhancements will allow the Hudson River Museum to welcome and embrace our community, while protecting the treasures that we can all learn from together. More than just additional space, this expansion project will allow the HRM to rethink how we present and share art and offer something new and inspiring every time you visit.”

Read the full press release here.

The Fund for HRM

This project will position the Museum for an important fundraising campaign to ensure the long-term sustainability of the institution for generations to come. The Fund for HRM provides essential support for the Museum’s continued growth and leadership. It allows us to realize our vision to be a leading cultural institution in the region, and to serve as a model of excellence to all of our patrons, welcoming them, delighting them, and creating new learning opportunities on every visit. Learn more here.

For more information about ​naming opportunities and related support in the Museum’s new West Wing, please contact Robert Panzera at rpanzera@hrm.org or (914) 963-4550 x218.

Expanding Its Footprint and Outreach
WAG Magazine (May 6, 2022) ↗

A West Wing With Sweeping Views of the Palisades and the Hudson River
ArtsNews (November 30, 2020) ↗

Museum Digs in for $12.8 Million Project
The Rivertowns Enterprise (November 27, 2020) ↗

West Wing Project Groundbreaking
Currents (November 25, 2020) ↗

New York’s Hudson River Museum Will Break Ground on a Major Expansion
The Architect’s Newspaper (November 16, 2020) ↗

Designed by Archimuse and built by GTL Construction, the West Wing project expands the Museum from approximately 40,000 to 52,000 square feet while seamlessly integrating the enhancements with the existing campus and the view of the Hudson River and Palisades. The West Wing is the culmination of a multi-phased Master Plan begun in 2002, which includes capital improvements to the Museum’s entrance and lobby, the creation of a new education center and a 400-seat outdoor amphitheater, and critically needed updates to exhibition galleries and a new special events space.

Subsequent phases of the project are planned to address restoration of the exterior of Glenview, the Museum’s prominent nineteenth-century home on the National Register of Historic Places, originally commissioned by John Bond Trevor and Emily Norwood Trevor. Glenview was recently featured in HBO’s The Gilded Age series, the popular Emmy Award–winning series from Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey.

“The Hudson River Museum is a national treasure,” said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. “Through partnership at all levels of government, we were able to deliver the investment needed to begin this important project. These new improvements will ensure the museum can broaden its offerings, and continue to make a significant impact in our community and across the State.”

Westchester County Executive George Latimer stated, “Cultural appreciation is a keystone of our County and its residents. This project will provide one of Westchester’s most important cultural institutions the foundation it needs to continue serving our communities with its nationally renowned programs and exhibitions. Helping to fund this project, without having to allocate any new funds, is a great investment in the future of Westchester County as a cultural destination.”

Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano added, “We are proud that for many residents in Westchester and the New York area, a trip to the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers is their first museum experience. This project will ensure that the Museum remains a prestigious, nationally recognized institution, able to expand its offerings to the public, and ready to inspire future generations in our City and beyond.”

The Special Exhibitions Galleries, a space of 3,350 square feet, is a fifteen-foot tall specialized facility designed to attract and display world-class art and adhere to rigorous industry conservation standards. It will graciously accommodate the widest range of changing exhibitions and lender requirements, and allow for an exciting variety of installation, performance, multimedia, and large-scale art. It will simultaneously allow the Museum to exhibit far more of its own collections on a permanent basis.

The Museum is proud to announce that the new galleries will include a stunning space for displays that will feature local and emerging artists, including work by artists-in-residence, community collaborations, and partnerships with schools.

In the center of the Special Exhibitions Gallery is a cantilevered glass overlook, which grants a dramatic, three-sided panoramic view of the Hudson River and the majestic Palisades, inviting spaces for relaxation and contemplation. It is the West Wing’s dramatic scenic gesture and ultimate tribute to the natural beauty that surrounds it.

The West Wing’s interior Sculpture Court will provide dedicated space, filled with natural light, in which to experience significant works from the permanent collection with a clear view to the Museum Courtyard, Glenview, and the outside world. Many of these sculptures have rarely been on view during the past several decades due to space constraints.

The new art storage will meet stringent requirements imposed by lender organizations and the American Alliance of Museums to ensure safe housing and display of artwork, and conform with current professional standards for collections management and storage.

Auditorium
The West Wing will include a tiered 100-seat, ADA compliant, state-of-the-art Auditorium, responding to the natural cascading grade. The universally accessible Auditorium will allow the Museum to present multimedia presentations and performances, film and video projection, dance, lectures, and panel discussions.

River Terrace
The existing outdoor patio adjoining the Auditorium will be transformed into the River Terrace. The Terrace will be upgraded with a new concrete slab and sleek glass parapet, connecting the Auditorium with the Hudson Room, the Museum’s special events space overlooking the River.

Glenview Historic House
The exterior of Glenview, the Museum’s beautiful and important 1877 riverfront home on the National Register of Historic Places and fashioned in an eclectic Late Victorian style, will receive much needed conservation to its stone and wood work, roof, and windows. Designed by Charles W. Clinton, the noteworthy architect of New York’s Park Avenue Armory building, Glenview’s period rooms are furnished with some of the finest Victorian art and decorative arts in harmony with the high style architecture of the building.

Landscaping
Now in the planning stages, this meadow-style perennial and shrub garden on the western slopes of the Hudson River Museum will include native plants and pollinators and offer opportunities for interdisciplinary connections for the Museum’s programming.

Archimuse, led by Benjamin D. Kracauer, AIA, Principal, Architect and Reuben S. Jackson, RA, Principal, Architect, was founded in 1990 to directly address the goals and aspirations of the museum community: to conserve, to study, to interpret, and to exhibit. Archimuse provides fully integrated services and support necessary to fulfill these mandates. With its programmatic approach to planning, architecture and design, and coordinated and diversified methodology, Archimuse offers a uniquely balanced expertise to the planning and building process.

Other Archimuse clients and successful projects include the Brooklyn Museum of Art; Carnegie Museum of Art; Connecticut Historical Society; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum at Eldridge Street; Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Yachting, Newport, Rhode Island; New-York Historical Society; Oakes Museum of Natural History at Messiah College; Orange County Museum of Art: Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College; Urban Cultural Parks in Cohoes and Buffalo, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art.

Reuben S. Jackson, RA, Principal, Architect
Reuben S. Jackson is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he studied architecture under Bernard Tschumi, Steven Holl, Michael Bell, William MacDonald and others. Jackson is presently directing the construction of Housing Works’ West Side Health Center at 326 West 48th Street, a gut renovation of an existing four-storey building plus Cellar, into the latest Housing Works primary care and behavioral health facility. He also directed the construction and recent completion of Housing Works’ East New York Community Health Center at 2640 Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn.

Benjamin D. Kracauer, AIA, Principal, Architect
Upon receiving his degree in Architecture from Princeton University in 1979, Kracauer worked with Michael Graves Architect, Venturi, Rauch, and Scott Brown Architects, and Robert A. M. Stern Architects. Later, as project architect at Edward Larrabee Barnes/John M.Y. Lee Architects, he headed the addition and renovation of the Birmingham Museum of Art, including a sculpture garden (in collaboration with Elyn Zimmerman); the new Knoxville Museum of Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art at Equitable Center. Also working with the Equitable, Kracauer has installed major outdoor urban art commissions that include sculptor Scott Burton’s “Urban Plazas: North and South”; sculptor Barry Flanagan’s “Leaping Hare” and “Young Elephant”; and Sol Lewitt’s “Wall Drawing.”