The Rockefeller Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture is situated on a former 80-acre cattle farm in the rural hills of Westchester County, New York. The 1930’s, 49,000 square-foot stone barn complex and its associated pastures were adapted to house the Center’s four-season farm, education facility, and the world-renowned, farm-driven Blue Hill Restaurant.
Design for this public, not-for-profit center integrates the needs of a progressive, educational farm and culinary destination while serving the larger New York community as a year-round agricultural prototype facility. The barn complex interiors were transformed into a visitor center, gallery, café, administration offices, and the Blue Hill Restaurant. The former barnyards were developed into a demonstration garden, a formal central courtyard, an herb garden, and an outdoor dining terrace.
The sequence of landscape programs encourages exploration of the surrounding fields, orchards, and four-season greenhouse. Roads and paths align to follow the existing topography, which optimizes expansive views of the surrounding pastures, forest edges, and the Hudson River Valley landscape.