Beacon Point | |
---|---|
Artist | George Trakas |
Year | 2007 |
Medium | steel, wood, and concrete |
Movement | Environmental art |
Location | Long Dock Park, Beacon, New York |
41°30′12″N73°59′20″W / 41.503345°N 73.988807°W |
Beacon Point is a permanent public artwork by George Trakas in Beacon, New York. Located on the Hudson River waterfront the work was inaugurated in 2007 by the Dia Art Foundation and built in collaboration with Scenic Hudson and Minetta Brook. Beacon Point was previously listed as one of Dia's sites they manage but is no longer considered as such.
Beacon Point is situated in the Peter J. Sharp Park within the larger Long Dock Park, in Beacon, New York. [1] the 23-acre Long Dock Park was an abandoned railroad marine landing before its adaptation into a public park by Scenic Hudson. [2]
Located on the north side and western tip of the park's peninsula, Beacon Point consists of a series of decks, pathways, and stairs constructed of both steel and wood. [1] [2] Dia describes these elements as, "a series of gradual cascading steps which recall the forms of undulating waves." These curving and undulating forms step down into the Hudson River, interacting with the rivers currents and tidal changes. [1]
The most prominent feature of Beacon Point is a diagonal steel channel dividing the curving boardwalk. This lightly sloping channel flairs at each end forming curving steps which allow the river water through. [2] The Architect's Newspaper notes that the surrounding boardwalk is, "studded with a whimsically large number of concrete footings." [2]
Beyond this channel The artwork also includes a terraced angling deck, a boardwalk, a restored bulkhead, and a restored southern shoreline of the peninsula. [2] [3]
Trakas states he designed the work “to play with the existing environment.” [4] While the structure is designed for humans to enjoy, muskrats, crabs, and a variety of fish are noted as using the space as well. [4]
Dia Art Foundation and Scenic Hudson began discussions with George Trakas in 1999 about opportunities to create water-access in relation to the construction of the nearby Dia Beacon art museum. [2] Over the next several years Trakas worked with the environmental organization Scenic Hudson and the public art organization Minetta Brook to integrate his work with the overall design and environmental remediation of the chosen location, a peninsula jutting out into the Hudson. [3] Trakas described the condition of the peninsula when he first saw it in a New York Times article with :
“When I got here it was totally overgrown. There were just mounds of weeds, poison ivy, locusts. There were little trails that led out to this point, but the point at high tide was full of water. At low tide it was the exposed stumps of pilings and a lot of industrial refuse.” [4]
In 2001 the peninsula underwent a large-scale clean-up of debris and brush and tree pruning. Shortly after this clean up the Trakas designed boardwalk and steel deck were installed. The full artwork was inaugurated as a permanent public artwork six years later, in October 2007, by the Dia Art Foundation. [3]
Beacon is a city located on the Hudson River in Dutchess County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 13,769. Beacon is part of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, New York–New Jersey–Connecticut–Pennsylvania Combined Statistical Area.
New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the East Coast of the United States.
North River is an alternative name for the southernmost portion of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City and northeastern New Jersey in the United States.
Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumberger oil exploration fortune; art dealer Heiner Friedrich, Philippa's husband; and Helen Winkler, a Houston art historian. Dia provides support to projects "whose nature or scale would preclude other funding sources."
Storm King Mountain is a mountain on the west bank of the Hudson River just south of Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York. Together with Breakneck Ridge on the opposite bank of the river it forms "Wey-Gat" or Wind Gate, the picturesque northern narrows of the Hudson Highlands. Its distinctive curved ridge is the most prominent aspect of the view south down Newburgh Bay, from Newburgh, Beacon, and the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. It can also be seen by southbound travelers on nearby sections of the New York State Thruway. This view was a popular subject for early artists of the Hudson River School.
Dia Beacon is the museum for the Dia Art Foundation's collection of art from the 1960s to the present and is one of the 12 locations and sites they manage. The museum, which opened in 2003, is situated near the banks of the Hudson River in Beacon, New York. Dia Beacon's facility, the Riggio Galleries, is a former Nabisco box-printing facility that was renovated by Dia with artist Robert Irwin and architects Alan Koch, Lyn Rice, Galia Solomonoff, and Linda Taalman, then of OpenOffice. Along with Dia's permanent collection, Dia Beacon also presents temporary exhibitions, as well as public programs designed to complement the collection and exhibitions, including monthly Gallery Talks, Merce Cunningham Dance Company Events, Community Free Days for neighboring counties, and an education program that serves area students at all levels. With 160,000 square feet (15,000 m2), it is one of the largest exhibition spaces in the country for modern and contemporary art.
The Newburgh–Beacon Ferry is a ferry service crossing the Hudson River that connects Newburgh with Beacon in the U.S. state of New York. It carries passengers between the two cities during rush hour, primarily transporting commuters from the west side of the river at Newburgh to the commuter train station on the east side at Beacon where they can catch Metro North Hudson Line service to Grand Central Terminal and other points in New York City.
The Barnegat Peninsula, also known as the Island Beach Peninsula or Barnegat Bay Island and colloquially as "the barrier island", is a 20-mile (32 km) long, narrow barrier peninsula located on the Jersey Shore in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, that divides the Barnegat Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. It is a vacation destination and summer colony area and is heavily dependent on tourism, real estate and fishing.
The U.S. Post Office in Beacon, New York, is located on Main Street. It serves the ZIP Code 12508, covering the entire city of Beacon and some of the neighboring areas of the Town of Fishkill. It is a stone structure in the Dutch Colonial Revival architectural style built in the mid-1930s. In 1988 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with many other older post offices in the state.
Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, where they emerge on Bergen Neck, which in turn is the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet.
The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is a waterfront greenway for walking or cycling, 32 miles (51 km) long, around the island of Manhattan, in New York City. The largest portions are operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It is separated from motor traffic, and many sections also separate pedestrians from cyclists. There are three principal parts — the East, Harlem and Hudson River Greenways.
The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, also known as the Hudson River Walkway, is a promenade along the Hudson Waterfront in New Jersey. The ongoing and incomplete project located on Kill van Kull and the western shore of Upper New York Bay and the Hudson River was implemented as part of a New Jersey state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities from the Bayonne Bridge to the George Washington Bridge with an urban linear park and provide contiguous unhindered access to the water's edge.
Tarrytown Light, also known as Kingsland Point Light and Sleepy Hollow Light, is a sparkplug lighthouse on the east side of the Hudson River in Sleepy Hollow, New York, United States. It a conical steel structure erected in the 1880s. In 1979 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Boulevard East is a two-way, mostly two lane, scenic county road in the North Hudson, New Jersey municipalities of Weehawken, West New York, Guttenberg and North Bergen. Apart from small sections at either end, the road runs along the crest of the Hudson Palisades, affording it views of the Hudson River and the New York City skyline. Developed at the turn of the 20th century, the residential road is characterized by an eclectic mix of 20th-century architecture, including private homes as well as mid and high-rise apartment buildings, mostly on its western side, with a promenade and parks along its eastern side. It is also the setting for Edward Hopper's 1934 painting East Wind Over Weehawken, which is considered one of his best works.
Millers River was a river in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It has since mostly been obscured by landfill and "made land". The small remaining estuary is a remnant of wetlands and open water that once divided Cambridge from Charlestown, Massachusetts. The exact historical course of parts the river is somewhat uncertain, and thus parts of the Charlestown-Cambridge and Somerville-Cambridge borders may have changed due to incorrect historical reconstruction.
Gracehoper is a public artwork by American artist Tony Smith, located in the Louisville Waterfront Park, which is in Louisville, Kentucky. This large-scale sculpture, measuring twenty-two feet high and forty six feet long, was fabricated by Lippincott, Inc in 1988, eight years after Smith's death, at a cost of one million dollars. The sculpture is made of welded steel that has been painted black.
George Trakas is a sculptor who was born in Quebec City in 1944 and has lived in New York City since 1963. Many of his projects are site-specific installations, and he describes himself as an environmental sculptor. He often recycles local materials and incorporates them into his work.
The Keweenaw Waterway Upper Entrance Light is a lighthouse located at the north end of the Portage River in McLain State Park in Hancock Township, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
John Peter De Windt Jr., known as J. P. De Windt (1787–1870) created the Long Wharf, later known as the Long Dock, in Beacon, New York, in 1815 and owned an enormous estate in Dutchess County, which was eventually broken up into the streets of Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, or present-day Beacon. He was a manufacturer and investor in steamboats and railroads during the immense boom in transportation in the mid 1800s along the Hudson which linked New York City to the rest of the country. He was married to the granddaughter of John and Abigail Adams.