Stone Hill CenterBy Claire Barliant
Published: October 1, 2008
 
Courtesy Tadao Ando
Tadao Ando’s debut as a professional boxer, 1958
October 2008 Field Guide
Walls, in Tadao Ando’s buildings, have always straddled the boundary between architecture and art: they are functionally load bearing, yes, but also sculptural and monumental. He incises them with crosses, sends them into sharply descending grades, and swivels them at odd angles so that they cut through a landscape with the force of a blade. The thick concrete is never disguised as anything but, reveling in its austere, solid materiality. Ando’s latest construction, Stone Hill Center in Williamstown, Massachusetts, includes a prominent exterior wall gracefully extending on either side of the gray, airy building, evincing the architect’s predilection for strong statements. But with a key difference: having been cast in wood forms, the concrete is imprinted with the grain and texture of wood, lending the wall a considerably softer touch. According to Ando, the wall creates space between the visitors and nature, giving the museum a sense of serenity. Ando never had any official training as an architect, but he was trained as a boxer, and during a lecture he doesn’t pull any punches. “I like Yayoi Kusama’s art, but she’s not someone I would have a cup of coffee with,” he says cheerfully of the 79-year-old artist, whose work was included in one of the six major museums he has built over his 39 years in practice. Yet when it comes to discussing the Stone Hill Center, he is unfailingly polite and deferential. When asked during a rare break in the architect’s hectic schedule about the difference between building here and in Japan, Ando says, through a translator, that the biggest differences, obviously, are the people and the culture. “Especially the culture of construction,” he adds. “For each project, wherever it is, you have to understand how the people and the culture come into play, which affects the way they make buildings. You have to make sure they understand your method of construction, and then they can help.” Housing two intimate galleries and the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, the Stone Hill Center is a promising precursor to Ando’s expansion of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, which is scheduled for completion around 2013. Unlike the Institute, a stuffy and ornate faux–Greek temple built in 1955 and housing a collection of French Impressionist and early American painting, the Stone Hill Center fits in to its exquisite Berkshires setting with ease, blending seamlessly with the gently rolling landscape rich in yellow birch, beech, and sugar maple trees. High windows elegantly frame these views, but also serve to let in ample light, which is key for the conservators working inside. Ando has the utmost respect for these professionals and gives them plenty of natural light to ply their trade—at least as much, as he repeatedly says during a tour of the facilities, as the painters had when they made the works currently under repair. While the building, which is modest in size, may have little to offer visitors who aren’t die-hard Ando fans (aside from a bit of respite in a beautiful location), it excels at providing a comfortable, inspiring work space for those laboring within. “My intention is not only to find the best way to exhibit works of art, but also to create an ideal work environment,” Ando says. “These people take conservation very seriously, and I wanted to convey how important it is in our lives to create and have a good space to work." "Tadao Ando's Stone Hill Center" originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' October 2008 Table of Contents.
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