The Long Dock Beacon Hotel and Executive Conference Center
Architectural and Master Plan Background

“The landscape of the Hudson River is a great parchment on which the hand of nature has written and rewritten her bold signature for more than a billion years.”

The Hudson, A History by Tom Lewis, Yale University Press, 2005

What we see today as a river landscape is just the top layer from generations of natural and human activities. The Hudson from Manhattan to Troy is a tidal fjord, a deep valley of old clays supporting the water’s daily north and south tidal ebb. The Long Dock site, made entirely from industrial fill, expands usable land onto the river’s flows, a thin crust of man-made material resting on almost 200 feet of soft organic deposits – current time resting on a long history of silent events.

The Long Dock building arises from a conversation with the river, its bed and banks and the distant ridgeline of the Hudson highlands, and is inspired by the old river pier buildings that once dotted the shores up and down the river. The new building rests gracefully along an east-to-west line that starts a thousand feet inland, almost to the railroad, and ends at the water, the tides lapping at the piles that hold up the river end. New river area will be carved out for the hotel site’s western extremety, a large public deck and a signature restaurant sharing extraordinary panoramic river views. 

The new river area is a permanent mitigation for the shoreline stabilization that must occur to prevent ongoing shoreline erosion. The site and building will be constructed to handle periodic flooding from the river. These site strategies and the comprehensive green building program will make the Long Dock Hotel and Conference Center a model for sustainability in the hospitality industry and in the national building community.

Long Dock is an ideal and natural alignment of building for breathtaking public views, hotel room views and energy conservation. The hotel/conference center will combine the best of environmentally sustainable building practices with exceptional guest comfort and service. While the exterior landscape is preserved and protected, the interior environment will provide guests with an unparalleled relaxing and refreshing experience.

With its many sustainable strategies, Long Dock Beacon will no doubt achieve a high rating from the United States Green Building Council’s LEED award program.2 Many of the strategies listed below will be part of the LEED plan to make the building’s performance and the building’s features as green as possible. In several important ways, Long Dock Beacon will go beyond the LEED rating system and the success will be measured by the users and the community.

The building as a measure of the Landscape

The building has been located on the site in order to mediate between two natures, the green nature to the south and the civic nature to the north. Scenic Hudson, which owns the site, is building a 13-acre nature preserve on the land to the south of Long Dock. The building edges the park and looks over it from a slightly elevated public level. Its elegant location allows both guests and visitors to experience one of the most dramatic views along the entire river.

The north edge is a more urban place, bordering and partaking in the busy Beacon harbor movements and train station energy. Because the building’s low height makes it somewhat recessive, it will become an active observer of both worlds and enhance each by gently separating them.

The ability to protect the community

The Long Dock site has been the scene of industrial activities that damaged the river and polluted the community. The hotel conference center, by encouraging guests to arrive by train, by bus connections from Stewart airport, and even by boat, will eliminate much potential pollution and the negative impact it would have on the community.

A lesson in beauty

What will sustainability gain us if it is not ultimately more beautiful? The architect has described the building as a viewing device for the landscape. Like a race car is sculpted to cheat friction and its beauty comes from its aerodynamic form, the long pier building will be like a green garden hedge, its beauty intrinsic in its simple mission to provide a device for viewing and experiencing the river and the landscape.