The master plan is conceived of as a Discovery Path where visitors can explore the Library’s place in the Hudson Valley ecosystem, experience both cultivated and naturalized landscapes, understand the changing habitats on site, and enjoy large group performances and gentle walks. Along the Discovery Path, each system or element is optimized to orientation or relationship, including a pollinator garden, emerging woodlands and wetlands, as well as a cultivated landscapes for outdoor reading and tree-canopied amphitheater performances. Embracing their mission as an institution of innovation, knowledge, and leadership, the grandest expression of the Desmond Fish Public Library’s aspirations is the sculptural photo-voltaic array, oriented to maximize solar energy collection and shaped like wind-captured ribbon as it lofts between the river and mountains.
The Discovery Path and Reading Garden will be built in spring, 2020. The Ribbon Array will follow shortly thereafter. Then over time, additional elements along the Path will take shape. At every turn throughout the process, the library sought to demonstrate balance – of effort, of attention, of leadership in action.