Location: Philmont, NY
Client: A2 Buildings
Status: In Construction
Program: Mixed-Use
Team: AtelierTek Architects (Daniel Hammerman, Dana Lieber-Gal, Nader Wallerich, Andrejs Zarins); Effectus Group (Owner’s Rep); Silman (Structural); M/E Engineering (MEPF); Tighe and Bond (Landscape, Civil), LVF (Landscape); Preservation Studios (SHPO/HTC), HKa (Code), Sam Tell (Food & Beverage), HMBA (Theater, Acoustics, AV, IT, SEC)
This iconic knitting mill has anchored the Hudson Valley village of Philmont, NY for 150 years from its picturesque perch above Agawamuck Creek, adjacent to Summit Lake and High Falls. After decades of disuse and disrepair, AtelierTek and A2 Buildings are breathing new life into the building and community, reimagining Philmont Mill’s future as a center of arts, culture and special events. Our approach balances sensitivity to historic integrity with aesthetically distinct, tactical interventions to support the new program and meet current needs.
The 34,000 SF mill adaptive re-use project is currently underway, after receiving unanimous Village Planning Board approval, SHPO Part 2 approval for Historic Tax Credits, and a significant grant from NYS Restore New York program for community revitalization through development. The reimagined building will house a flexible theater with mezzanine for performing arts, indoor and outdoor event spaces, restaurant and commercial kitchen, and artist studios and galleries. Resonant to the mill’s origins in textile production, the artist-in-residence program and exhibitions will center fiber and fabric arts, operated by a newly-formed non-profit organization. Commissioned textile art also features prominently in the architectural and acoustical treatment of spaces throughout the project.
Reorienting Philmont Mill, our intervention dramatically reinforces connection to nature and site: thin steel catwalk balconies extend outward, encouraging visitors to circulate between spaces and linger, hovering above the stream, enjoying views into lush riparian vegetation and the burbling waterfall flowing down from Summit Lake.
Embracing the spectacular site, the historically utilitarian creekside rear elevation is newly prioritized, background becoming foreground. With structural jujitsu, the catwalks delicately cantilever off the existing framing in a planimetric nod to long-gone, creek-facing platforms, walkways and outbuildings discovered in historic imagery and Sanborn maps, whose outlines remain faintly ghosted on the historic brick walls.
The site-milled stone outbuilding shell, nicknamed the “grotto,” is stabilized with structural framing that also supports a new, transparent canopy roof, creating a fantastic covered outdoor arts and events space. Like the catwalks, the grotto intervention is carefully designed, detailed and scaled with contextual integrity, while deploying contemporary materials and engineered construction techniques. True to the industrial nature of the mill, these interventions are well-considered, pragmatic solutions which are aesthetically distinctive and clearly of our time, yet wholly harmonious with the original construction.
Inside, we also expose and celebrate the raw, historic materials and details, rehabilitating with a light touch, as needed to meet current codes, performance needs, and support the program. Required structural reinforcement, new stairs and guardrails are similarly designed with respectfully distinct, crisp materiality and inventive detailing. Old and new are poised in dialogue, each reinforcing appreciation of the other. Subtle, softly dramatic lighting is woven through the project, its warm, inviting glow enhancing the architecture.
Extensive research, visioning and engagement deepened our appreciation of Philmont Mill’s aesthetic, ecological, and socio-historical contexts, past and present, informing a design approach that is both unexpected and appropriate, creative and technical, distinct yet resonant with the rhythms and stories of the site and the structure.
Along with our client, patient persistence, iterative engagement and studies underpinned the evolution and refinement of program and design. A joyful, sometimes non-linear process generated a project deeply responsive to conceptual aspirations, community input, and economic viability on a tight budget.
This iconic knitting mill has anchored the Hudson Valley village of Philmont, NY for 150 years from its picturesque perch above Agawamuck Creek, adjacent to Summit Lake and High Falls. After decades of disuse and disrepair, AtelierTek and A2 Buildings are breathing new life into the building and community, reimagining Philmont Mill’s future as a center of arts, culture and special events. Our approach balances sensitivity to historic integrity with aesthetically distinct, tactical interventions to support the new program and meet current needs.
The 34,000 SF mill adaptive re-use project is currently underway, after receiving unanimous Village Planning Board approval, SHPO Part 2 approval for Historic Tax Credits, and a significant grant from NYS Restore New York program for community revitalization through development. The reimagined building will house a flexible theater with mezzanine for performing arts, indoor and outdoor event spaces, restaurant and commercial kitchen, and artist studios and galleries. Resonant to the mill’s origins in textile production, the artist-in-residence program and exhibitions will center fiber and fabric arts, operated by a newly-formed non-profit organization. Commissioned textile art also features prominently in the architectural and acoustical treatment of spaces throughout the project.
Reorienting Philmont Mill, our intervention dramatically reinforces connection to nature and site: thin steel catwalk balconies extend outward, encouraging visitors to circulate between spaces and linger, hovering above the stream, enjoying views into lush riparian vegetation and the burbling waterfall flowing down from Summit Lake.
Embracing the spectacular site, the historically utilitarian creekside rear elevation is newly prioritized, background becoming foreground. With structural jujitsu, the catwalks delicately cantilever off the existing framing in a planimetric nod to long-gone, creek-facing platforms, walkways and outbuildings discovered in historic imagery and Sanborn maps, whose outlines remain faintly ghosted on the historic brick walls.
The site-milled stone outbuilding shell, nicknamed the “grotto,” is stabilized with structural framing that also supports a new, transparent canopy roof, creating a fantastic covered outdoor arts and events space. Like the catwalks, the grotto intervention is carefully designed, detailed and scaled with contextual integrity, while deploying contemporary materials and engineered construction techniques. True to the industrial nature of the mill, these interventions are well-considered, pragmatic solutions which are aesthetically distinctive and clearly of our time, yet wholly harmonious with the original construction.
Inside, we also expose and celebrate the raw, historic materials and details, rehabilitating with a light touch, as needed to meet current codes, performance needs, and support the program. Required structural reinforcement, new stairs and guardrails are similarly designed with respectfully distinct, crisp materiality and inventive detailing. Old and new are poised in dialogue, each reinforcing appreciation of the other. Subtle, softly dramatic lighting is woven through the project, its warm, inviting glow enhancing the architecture.
Extensive research, visioning and engagement deepened our appreciation of Philmont Mill’s aesthetic, ecological, and socio-historical contexts, past and present, informing a design approach that is both unexpected and appropriate, creative and technical, distinct yet resonant with the rhythms and stories of the site and the structure.
Along with our client, patient persistence, iterative engagement and studies underpinned the evolution and refinement of program and design. A joyful, sometimes non-linear process generated a project deeply responsive to conceptual aspirations, community input, and economic viability on a tight budget.
