Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/496780
172 CULTURED Hilderbrand about the firm's cultured clientele. One of the firm's largest and most extensive projects was The Clark Art Institute, which reopened last July. This was no straightforward makeover—it took 14 years to construct new buildings and refurbish the existing museum as well as plot the sprawling campus, which now incorporates 140 acres of meadows, woodlands and wetlands. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando was selected to design the visitor center and conservation lab while New York-based Selldorf Architects focused on the renovation of the museum and research center with international architecture firm Gensler acting as executive architect and sustainability consultant. The Clark team collaborated with Reed Hilderbrand to help engage the visitor with the art while also connecting them to the area's bucolic Berkshire setting. "We believed we could recapture the pastoral landscape with the visitor experience and campus-like setting," says Hilderbrand. The revamped landscape now boasts a central three-tiered reflecting pool, which is connected to an advanced water management system that reduces the Clark's forecasted potable water consumption by approximately 50 percent (or one million gallons annually). One thousand new tree plantings were also installed along with extensions to walking trails, five new pedestrian bridges, 80 acres maintained as woodland, 49 acres managed as native meadow, with 15 acres of the campus protected as wetland and waterway and 10 meadow rain gardens that capture and treat runoff. All of this could not have been accomplished without the thoughtful and multi-disciplinary approach of the two partners who were involved for the long haul. Maddy Burke-Vigeland from Gensler played an active role in the process and says, "There's a rigor of research that is embedded into Reed Hilderbrand's work—it was in this regard that they brought a depth of cultural understanding of the history of the 140 acres at the Clark that ultimately set the context for looking forward." Reed Hilderbrand revitalized another collegiate epicenter, West Campus at Duke University, engaging students in the reconstructive process. COURTESY OF ROBYN IVY