New York Magazine’s “Vulture” blog reports some truly earth-shaking news for Hudson: Rem Koolhaas has signed on to build Marina Abramovic’s long-awaited performance art museum, in the old Community Tennis building on the north side of the 7th Street park.
Without exaggeration, Koolhaas is among the very most respected avant-garde architects in the world today. His involvement means that the building should become a destination not only for performance art afficianados, but also architecture buffs.
According to the article, Ambramovic (who also has a house in Columbia County) is anticipating an $8 million budget. She also says that she’s advocating with the new Mayor to support a hotel which would accommodate the large number of anticipated visitors, some of whom might be looking for something other than a B&B experience or a
It will be fascinating, among other things, to see how Hudson’s Historic Preservation Commission handles the project. I’ve long argued that preservation in Hudson should focus primarily on (A) preventing demolition of historic structures and (B) assisting homeowners with making—and finding funding for—historically accurate restorations. The question has always been (I remember raising this with my friend Tony Thompson way back when at a garden party held by Sarah Sterling in 1999) what Hudson would do if a truly famous architect wanted to build something cutting-edge here. Would we spurn a Richard Meier, or Zaha Hadid, or Gehry building because it was not period? Hudson is, today, a catalog of period vernacular American styles precisely because its building stock evolved with the times.
This project may put that theoretical question to the test.
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