Hudson Modern showcases stunning new houses in the Hudson River Valley that embrace the dramatic settings and cultural bounty of this popular region.

As the birthplace of American landscape painting, the Hudson River Valley has long been a refuge from the city and a laboratory for new aesthetic expression. Today, thanks to its ascendant reputation as a weekend utopia, architects are extending that tradition into the built environment.

Designing residences that revere local climate, landscape, and history in a distinctly modernist language, these talents are sowing a new Hudson River school of architectural thought. Hudson Modern surveys this emerging domestic architecture, featuring nearly twenty houses that integrate with site and region through composition, scale, and materials, and which strike a balance between innovation and rootedness.

A reconstructed midcentury house accented in cedar, walnut, and bluestone by Joel Sanders and landscaped by the late Diana Balmori blurs the edge of habitation and nature. KieranTimberlake revises the classic vision of a glass box by cladding a home on a rocky site in Pound Ridge in a tapestry of steel, aluminum, copper, and glass. In Rhinebeck, Steven Holl experiments with a radical form that has both ecological and social dimensions.

Author David Sokol presents these and numerous other examples of design-forward residences that are responsive to terrain, building vernacular, and cultural legacy. Together, the new Hudson Valley houses point a way forward for rural living in the twenty-first century.

Hudson Modern showcases the stunning new houses in the Hudson River Valley that embrace their dramatic settings in this popular and culturally bountiful region.

About the Author

David Sokol is a New York-based journalist specializing in architecture and design. He is a contributing editor at Architectural Record and Cultured magazines, and he writes regularly for Azure, Departures, and multiple other publications. Before he focused solely on writing about the built environment, Sokol was managing editor of I.D. magazine. Since then he has authored several books, including The Modern Architecture Pop-Up Book and the series Nordic Architects, and taught graduate-level writing at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Reviews

"In Hudson Modern: Residential Landscapes David Sokol highlights 18 homes in the Hudson River Valley of New York, revealing how the bucolic region that inspired landscape painters now supports forward-thinking design. For the LM Guest House in Dutchess County, for instance, Katherine Chia and Arjun Desai created a wood-paneled master bedroom that practically seems to levitate within the foliage, while Robert Siegel designed his House 432 in Katonah with a rooftop courtyard that resembles a living room with the ceiling sliced clean off - a novel way to watch the seasons change." - The New York Times

"Hudson Modern: Residential Landscapes takes us inside the Hudson Valley's most beautiful homes for a healthy dose of envy and inspiration. Accompanied by the words of David Sokol, you'll feel a comparable sense of escape and breathing room leafing through these pages - just as these lucky home-owners do every weekend." - Conde Nast Traveler

"A peek into the most beautiful modernist residences that dot the region - proof that architects like Steven Holl, Kiernan Timberlake, and Joel Sanders are just as likely as the artists to fall prey to the charms of this unique region." - Galerie

"As a whole, this book shows us something very different than similar publications: 18 recent designs that are relatively unpretentious, all highly respectful of their environment, and without a McMansion in sight." - Interior Design

"This book features sophisticated homes inspired by modernism that merge effortlessly with the beauty of New York's Hudson River Valley.... The unobtrusive beauty of the Hudson Valley might seem like a poor choice for decidedly modern homes against the backdrop of nature and vernacular architecture. Yet each home - "unique, but not out of place" - brings these elements together to enrich an already beautiful area." - Shelf Awareness

Book Information
ISBN 9781580934848
Author David Sokol
Format Hardback
Page Count 262
Imprint Monacelli Press
Publisher Monacelli Press
Weight(grams) 1720g
Dimensions(mm) 288mm * 193mm * 38mm