‘T’ Space Reserve, a 30-acre wooded preserve located a few miles east of Rhinebeck, is easily missed, the only parking a small clearing off the side of the road. Yet, since its founding in 2010, it has become an important fixture on the Hudson Valley art scene, hosting summer exhibitions that serve as the linchpin for a cross-pollination of painting and sculpture, architecture, poetry, and new music. ‘T’ Space is low-key, small scaled, and delightfully intimate.
Acclaimed architect Steven Holl founded the Steven Myron Holl Foundation in 2010 and subsequently built a T-shaped gallery on a property adjacent to the residence he shares with his wife, architect Dimitra Tsachrelia, and their children. ‘T’ Space evolved as a project of a family of artists, exhibiting the paintings of Steven’s brother, James Holl, and appointing James’s wife, photographer Susan Wides, as ‘T’ Space’s director and curator. To prevent a subdivision of McMansions, Steven Holl acquired an additional 28 acres in 2014 and expanded the complex to include an experimental guesthouse, an outdoor sculpture trail, and a building housing a second gallery and the Architectural Archive and Library.
Each season, two or three artists (one of whom is connected to architecture) are selected for the summer exhibitions. They’ve included such art world luminaries as Martin Puryear, Polly Apfelbaum, Ai Weiwei, and Richard Artschwager. The unique space and wooded site of the gallery is a powerful draw, inspiring installations that play on the relationship between painting, sculpture, and architecture.
With its white plywood walls, glass-framed views of the forest, and soaring spaces, the skylit interior of the compact, cedar-clad structure is spare and meditative. Holl designed the building so that a portion of the space is always hidden from view, transforming art viewing into a physically immersive experience. Each exhibition is accompanied by a salon-style outdoor poetry reading and musical performance. The informality and creative ferment at these gatherings are reminiscent of the 1970s-loft scene. The gatherings are now private, although each event is recorded and posted on ‘T’ Space’s website.
The organization also publishes catalogs encapsulating the exhibitions, readings, and performances; sponsors a summer lectures series; and hosts a competitive architectural summer residency. Its educational mission has been expanded to include the local community: Last year the organization launched programs with the Art Effect in Poughkeepsie and Community Matters 2 to bring underserved youth to the complex. Participants in Kingston’s art educational organization DRAW have also visited ‘T’ Space.
The Archive and Library are housed in a low-slung building with corrugated aluminum sides and a green roof that zigs and zags through the woods. Inside, the skylit structure displays more than 1,200 models of Holl’s buildings. It’s one of the largest such displays in the US and is complemented by of hundreds of Holl’s sketchbooks—he starts each design with a watercolor—thousands of books, and artworks by renowned architects.
Currently on display in the Archive gallery through October 13 are the blackened geometric sculptures of James Casebere. Crafted out of sustainable bamboo plywood burned using a traditional Japanese method of wood preservation, the geometric, faceted forms suggest slouching figures, industrial machinery stuttering into life, and burgeoning cityscapes. Casebere’s August opening featured a poetry reading by Samiya Bashir and a performance by composer Pamela Z.
The creme de la creme of ‘T’ Space is the Ex of In House, an off-the-grid, 918-square-foot building structured around the intersection of spheres and tesseracts. (It’s available for rental on Airbnb.) The slanting exterior wall, asymmetrical roof, circular cutouts of glass, and adjacent reflecting pool are playful, almost sculptural elements. Inside, soaring space alternates with cozy nooks. As with Holl’s other buildings, the use of plywood conveys a warmth and sense of utility.
‘T’ Space is an ambitious experiment that posits an alternative to the consumptive, environmentally destructive patterns of contemporary American life, offering a hopeful vision for the future: architecture as a humanistic practice that harmonizes nature and culture and fosters community, the arts as spiritual and intellectual sustenance, and collaboration as the pathway toward innovation, resting on the cornerstone of sustainability. Big ideas are percolating in this secluded enclave of Dutchess County, which Mid-Hudson Valley residents are privileged to experience first-hand.
‘T’ Space Gallery is open Sundays from 11am to 5pm through October 13; admission is pay-what-you-can. To schedule a guided 90-minute campus tour year-round, email visit@smhfoundation.org; the cost is $50 per person. Discounted tours will be offered on October 6 and 13 at 2 pm in partnership with Archtober; advance tickets required. ‘T’ Space Reserve, 60 Round Lake Road, Rhinebeck.
This article appears in September 2024.
