Watermill, 2017
Architect: Roger Ferris + Partners – Gregory Thomas, Senior Associate
Structural Engineer: Jacobson Structures, Justin Jacobson Principal
Landscape Architect: Edwina von Gal
Builder: Michael Davis Construction
Program: 11200 sf, 8 bedroom, 8 and 2 half bath artists residence with gallery courtyard and outdoor performance space
New construction of an artists’ residence for an arts and humanities foundation.
The gabled volume and zinc clad structure is perched atop a below-grade common living and workspace, sunken sculpture courtyard, and outdoor performance space with cast in place concrete stadium seating.
The Watermill Center’s artist residence was a collaboration with renowned theater director and visual artist Robert Wilson, to create a unique living and performance space for visiting artists.
Clean modern and minimalist, Shaker inspired detailing provides a neutral meditative home for the artists’ time in residence.
The heart of the residence is the three-story skylit atrium and gallery space flanked by large rolling barn doors.
Watermill is a unique project that transcends ordinary typologies; part private residence, part public performance space, part individual artists’ workspace, part collaborative laboratory, all supported by and engaged with the board-run foundation. Watermill is a complex amalgam of programmatic requirements and stakeholder interests distilled to an elegant, sculptural backdrop for the artists to live and create.
