Shaker Geometry Meets Hudson Valley Ecology
Drawing from Shaker cultural values, geometries, regional ecologies, and communal ideals, NBW’s design creates a welcoming civic landscape for reflection, gathering, and cultural continuity.
NBW was commissioned to design the landscape for the new Shaker Museum in Chatham, New York, alongside Selldorf Architects, who are designing the renovation of a historic building and a new addition at 5 Austerlitz Street. The museum will house more than 18,000 objects comprising the world's most comprehensive collection of Shaker material culture and archives — a record drawn from the largest and most enduring Utopian communal society in American history, established at New Lebanon, New York, in 1787.
Within a compact site in the village of Chatham, NBW's design embeds the ethos, culture and beliefs of the Shakers. The landscape embodies the Shaker values of inclusion, innovation, and equality while responding to the surrounding community's needs and the ecological character of the region. Plantings draw from specific medicinal and productive horticulture of the historic site at New Lebanon, maintaining a living material thread between the two institutions.
The design mediates between building and streetscape, framing arrival and creating a setting for public engagement with the collections. The museum and landscape together complement the proposed programming at the new site, extending the life of an American design tradition rooted in the rhythms of land, labor, and communal life.
