The Jewel in the Quarry: Manitoga Celebrates 50 Years of Being Green
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2008
Contact: Lori Moss
845.424.3812
lmoss@russelwrightcenter.org
GARRISON, NY - On October 5, when Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center honors leading Hudson Valley environmentalists Anne and Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff and Dwell magazine founder Lara Deam, the Award recognizing Wright's legacy will be nearly a decade old.
The 2008 Russel Wright Award will recognize Anne and Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff for their extraordinary contributions to environmental conservation. Anne has served as chairwoman of the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Community Trust and as secretary of the World Wildlife Fund/US, three organizations which have continuing traditions of leadership in environmental science and protection. Locally, she is on the boards of Black Rock Forest, the Highland Falls Library, and Storm King Art Center.
"Connie" Sidamon-Eristoff is an environmental attorney who served as Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator under William K. Reilly during the senior Bush Administration. He is currently chairman of Audubon New York and on the Board of National Audubon and serves on the Board of Constitution Island Association.
"We are delighted that Manitoga continues to pursue Russel Wright's environmental interests as part of the organization's present day mission," said Anne Sidamon-Eristoff. "There is much important environmental work to be done and a woodland landscape designed using native plants can play a strong educational role for the Hudson Valley."
In 2008, Lara Deam, founder of Dwell magazine, will also be recognized for setting a new standard for excellence in communicating both environmental and modernist principles and the creative concepts that reflect Russel Wright's design philosophy.
Dwell, launched in 2000, champions an aesthetic in home design that is modern, idea-driven and sensitive to social and physical surroundings. In founding the publication, Deam aimed to support collaboration between architect and client so that the art of architecture can have greater influence in our culture. Dwell works to help minimize the impact of housing on the environment by making information about green projects and smaller homes more widely accessible.
"It is an honor for me, and for Dwell, to receive the Russell Wright award as the desire to promote site sensitive, culturally relevant homes is so critical to Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center's mission and what we at Dwell find especially wonderful about Wright's work," said Deam. Rob Forbes, founder of Design Within Reach and 2003 Russel Wright Award winner, will present the 2008 Award to Deam at the event.
Today, "green" and "sustainable" design dominates the field. However, as Dwell Editor-in-Chief Sam Grawe points out in the July-August issue of that magazine, "sustainability" was still a "hippie-dippie subject" at the beginning of the 21st century, just eight short years ago.
In 1942, when Russel Wright bought the devastated former quarry and logging site in Garrison, NY that would become Manitoga, both the term "hippie" and the beginning of modern environmental consciousness were two decades in the future. Wright turned his ravaged landscape into a 75-acre woodland garden that could help people learn how to live in harmony with nature. Over the course of more than 30 years until his death in 1976, Wright created four miles of paths winding up trails, through intimate spaces sheltered by vegetation, to stunning vistas far above the Hudson River, all designed to immerse the visitor in the restorative powers of nature.
Set like a jewel into the side of a granite quarry at the heart of this woodland landscape is Wright's Dragon Rock Home and Studio, the masterpiece of his life's work. A stunning prototype of organic modernism, the site became the designer's laboratory for exploring how new materials, technologies and ideas can be used to create a lifestyle centered on what had become his reigning ideal of nature and design in balance.
In the 1960s and '70s, Wright hosted picnics and dinners at Manitoga to share this concept and to foster discussion with early environmental leaders such as Rene Dubos, Stuart Udall, Pete Seeger and Scenic Hudson founder Franny Reese.
A longtime supporter of Manitoga, Mrs. Reese received the Russel Wright Award in 2002 for her lifetime of service to the Hudson Valley environment, beginning with her role in the protection of legendary Storm King Mountain from industrial devastation. That effort helped rally support for passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969.
Reese's son Alex, who continues the family tradition of environmental philanthropy, is a co-host for the 2008 Russel Wright Award event, together with his wife, architect Alison Spear, and Manitoga Board members Joe Chapman and Doris Shaw. Ms. Spear is restoring the Reese family home, Obercreek, retrofitting sustainability wherever possible.
"We are enjoying being at Manitoga and becoming a part of the team that puts on the Russel Wright Award event," said Spear. "Both modernist and green principles are very important to my practice, and I love it that people can come to Manitoga and see a compelling masterwork of both. We look forward to sharing wonderful Russel Wright auction prizes with our friends at the October Luncheon and his Manitoga with them afterwards at the Dragon Rock Open House that traditionally follows the event."
"My mother would be very pleased to see us involved in a place that she considered very special," added Alex.
Dwell's Editor-in-Chief Sam Grawe opens his July-August letter for the magazine by quoting a friend who said, "Sustainability will save design." In the article, Grawe goes on to say that "sustainability could save design by giving it a renewed sense of purpose." For Russel Wright, design was always imbued with strong purpose. From his mantra that bespeaks his Quaker roots and abiding faith in democracy, "good design is for everyone" to the "Man and Nature Center" that he founded with daughter Ann to provide tours of Manitoga so visitors can experience how to bring nature into their own lives, Wright designed with the purpose of improving human life.
"The growing trend toward sustainable design and the recognition that we must work to reclaim nature as he reclaimed the quarry and treat it with respect and love, as he did in his tireless landscaping projects, would make my father very happy," said Ann Wright. "I'm pleased that we have this chance once a year to celebrate his work and the work of others who share his values."
Sotheby's Vice Chairman David Redden serves at auctioneer for this year's offering of exceptional offerings, including a trip to the Dwell Design Conference in Los Angeles, a Miami Modern Weekend, and a personal tour by Jack Lenor Larsen of his LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, NY. Vintage Russel Wright collectibles and outstanding modern designs by Philip Starck, Eva Zeisel and Munder-Skiles round out the fare.
The 2008 Russel Wright Award Luncheon and Auction will be held from noon until 3:30 on Sunday, October 5 at The Garrison in Garrison, NY. For more information, please go to
http://www.russelwrightcenter.org/RWAward.html or e-mail info@russelwrightcenter.org.