GLENSTONE

Glenstone combines minimalist modern architecture, contemporary art, and nature in a serene and engaging environment described by the American Institute of Architects award committee as “a virtuoso display of design and detail, and a poetic integration of art, architecture and landscape.” The site’s original gallery and the Pavilions display art of the post-World War II era with 230 acres of winding paths and trails that traverse meadows, woodlands, and streams with the occasional sculpture. Set in a meadow of native grasses and perennial flowers, the buildings were inspired by such sites as Ryoanji, a Zen temple in Kyoto, Japan. They form a cluster of cube-like structures of varying size made from large blocks of poured concrete, lit by glass clerestories, and connected by walkways of solid glass held with steel mullions and surrounded by the Water Court. The collection includes over 1,300 works of art representing more than 200 noted artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.