Architects
Todd Rader and Amy Crews
"A Pilgrimage for Henry Hudson"
The majority of Henry Hudson’s life story is unwritten. He first appears in the documentation of his first voyage in pursuit of the Northeast Passage. This and three subsequent attempts to find a northern passage to the Orient between the years of 1607 and 1611 comprise the principle information we have on Hudson. In a brief five years of his life, he traveled thousands of miles in small wooden ships powered only by the wind and currents. He visited a series of remote locations, many of which bear his name to this day. Hudson’s journals tell of journeys pushing the limits of the known world, during which he often trusted the crew’s fate to “the Grace of God.”
Our installation frames an exploration of the landscape. Each modern pilgrim is invited to embark on his or her own search for the northern passage that is conveniently contained on the Byrdcliffe property. In this case, a walk through the woods will lead to a series of shrines. Each shrine will interrupt the search much as Hudson’s search was repeatedly interrupted by the unfortunate realities of geography. Each shrine will celebrate the farthest landfall reached on each of Henry Hudson’s four known voyages. Just as Hudson’s explorations were informed by the knowledge gained by earlier explorers, markers guide modern pilgrims to each of these shrines and eventually to the final resting place of Henry Hudson.
Shrines are constructed of plywood panels showing an image of the place and bearing inscriptions describing Hudson’s journeys and contemplating the subsequent legacy of Hudson’s “discoveries” as western culture has impacted each location over the last four centuries.
The shrines also include relics from the actual places represented in hope that viewing pebbles from a remote Arctic beach might result in the achievement of a higher level of geographical enlightenment. An actual sample of the landscape of a place allows us to look beyond our current age of virtual reality and instant digital transfers to contemplate an object that is real and that physically traveled the distance. Each relic will be accompanied by thorough documentation of its authenticity
The final pilgrimage of Hudson’s life was for something that did not exist and that he could never reach. Ironically, he is celebrated today for the landscapes he found along the way, landscapes that must have embodied frustrating defeats to him at the time.
Our installation aims to dramatize these conclusions by creating the physical experience of searching the landscape for something of dubious existence. Hopefully, we will be rewarded by what we find along the way. Ultimately, the pilgrimage to find what Hudson sought, following the same false leads and dead ends, pays homage to the spirit of the man and to the nature of all those who are driven to search and explore.
Bio
Todd Rader is an architect and landscape architect with 20 experience working in both professions. His approach to design has always straddled the division between architecture and landscape and his career has moved freely between professions, including the design of numerous buildings and landscapes. Originally from Ohio, he has been based in New York for the last 15 years.
Previous to forming his own firm, he was a partner at Cooper Robertson & Partners and has worked for Kliment Halsband Architects and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. He has taught in the Landscape Departments at Harvard University and The City College of New York.
Amy Crews is a landscape architect with many years experience on a wide range of project types, from large scale public projects to intimate residential gardens. Born and raised in New York City, she knows the Hudson River Valley well with close family near Hudson, NY.
An avid gardener with grounds keeping experience, her design sensibility often results in work that displays a unique understanding of plants only gained by actually growing and maintaining gardens. She earned degrees from Yale University and the University of Virginia.
Todd Rader and Amy Crews have worked as a design team since 1992 and formed the Brooklyn based firm of Todd Rader & Amy Crews Architecture Landscape Architecture in 2000. Rader & Crews is a multidisciplinary firm dedicated to creating designs that marry architecture and landscape. The firm’s projects span a wide variety of project types and scales from small gardens to community master plans on sites both urban and rural, including many projects in the Hudson River Valley.
The two are married and are simultaneously nurturing a design firm and three children.
