High Performance
After nearly four decades performing beneath a summer tent, Hudson Valley Shakespeare (HVS) opened its first permanent home on 98 acres overlooking the Hudson River. The site, a depleted former golf course, is reimagined as a landscape where theater and ecological restoration converge.
NBW's comprehensive landscape plan established a long-term framework for reinvigorating the landscape and providing a memorable visitor experience. NBW worked with the client to identify the hilltop site where the new theater would stand, along with the locations of parking, paths, and gathering spaces. The first phase, opened in 2026, uses topography to create a sense of drama from the moment of arrival. Visitors move from the parking area through native meadows along accessible paths that gradually climb toward the ridge overlooking the Hudson River, culminating in picnic lawns and the hilltop theater. The stage is oriented toward the monumental Wey-Gat, or 'Wind Gate' rock formation framing Storm King Mountain, the Hudson River, and Breakneck Ridge.
Fourteen acres of new planting include native and adapted trees, grasses, forbs, and perennials, along with bioretention areas that collect and filter stormwater. These interventions increase biodiversity, reduce resource use, and begin the long-term rewilding of the site. NBW worked in collaboration with Studio Gang to support the design of the open-air Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center—the centerpiece of HVS's mission to support performance, education, and year-round community programming.
