Lunder Center at Stone Hill

“I want to create intense yet quiet buildings where the voice of their creator can be heard, and to realize spaces ... that promote conversations with natural materials, where one can feel light, air, and rain,” says architect Tadao Ando, designer of the Lunder Center at Stone Hill.

Since its completion in 2008, the Lunder Center at Stone Hill has fulfilled all of Ando’s goals. Conceived as a sanctuary in the woods to be discovered at the end of a winding path, the Lunder Center is a contemplative retreat with two small galleries and a seasonal café that affords magnificent views of the Taconic Range, the Green Mountains, and Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts. Visitors can observe conservators in the Williamstown Art Conservation Center—the largest regional conservation center in the country—as they restore paintings and objects from fifty-five institutions in the Northeast. The Lunder Center at Stone Hill's steel and concrete block construction is partially clad with red cedar boards that are weathering to a soft gray, complementing the concrete that was poured into forms lined with pine boards etched with acid to accentuate the pattern of the grain.

The Lunder Center is open on a seasonal basis, hosting an annual summer exhibition that opens in July. The facilities are available for public access from April 15 through November 15 annually.