MILLBROOK — Community members had a chance to weigh in on plans to renovate the Thorne Building on Franklin Avenue into a state-of-the-art event and community center.
Architect Michael Sloan of Millbrook-based Sloan Architects outlined a proposal that includes a rear addition to expand the stage, an enlarged parking lot, new exterior lighting, a front garden and the removal of the portico on the building’s east side. Sloan said the building, originally constructed as a K-12 school, would be transformed into a space for the community to gather and create.
Public comment was generally supportive, though several residents sought more details about the lighting plan and disability accessibility. The public hearing was continued to the board’s April 20 meeting.
Sloan said the renovations would breathe new life into the century-old building, which has sat vacant in downtown Millbrook for years. The plans call for nearly every space across the building’s four floors to be put to use.
“This project is taking the Thorne Building on Franklin Avenue and giving it purpose and life again,” Sloan said. “The project entails basically making the Thorne Building an actual community center for the community that’s going to be open for the public.”
Michael Sloan displays proposed expansions to the Thorne Building's parking lot to accommodate crowds for performances during a public hearing of hte Millbrook village Planning Board on Monday, March 16, at the Millbrook Firehouse on Front Street.Photo by Nathan Miller
The renovations are being funded by the Millbrook Community Partnership, a nonprofit headed up by Millbrook resident Oakleigh Thorne — a descendant of the building's namesake — to support the creation of Bennett Park on the former Bennett College campus and the restoration of the historic Thorne Building. Thorne said Monday the building is still several years from opening, but the organization has already outlined potential uses for the interior space.
At the center of the project is the auditorium, which Sloan said will be expanded to better accommodate professional performances.
"It's what we call a high school stage," Sloan said. "It's really for graduation and very shallow."
Sloan said the building would be expanded by about 20 feet, 9 inches at the rear to provide more stage depth and allow for the installation of an accessibility ramp behind the stage. He said the auditorium would be transformed into a performance hall capable of hosting films, live music, plays, dance productions, community meetings and other events. The first floor would also include co-working space available for community members to rent.
"It's for everybody," Sloan said.
In the basement, Sloan said, plans call for a culinary arts space similar to a catering kitchen. While it would allow for food preparation and serving, he said, it would not function as a full production kitchen. The basement would also include a digital arts lab that Sloan compared to a makerspace.
He said the area would house 3D printers, computers, sewing machines, music-recording equipment, practice rooms and other tools for digital creation.
More than 30 people attended the Monday-night meeting to hear plans for the new-and-improved Thorne Building on Franklin Avenue in Millbrook at a public hearing of the Millbrook village Planning Board on Monday, March 16.Photo by Nathan Miller
The arts-focused uses would continue on the upper floors, Sloan said. The second and third floors would be dedicated to gallery and studio space for visual artists. The second floor would also include a dance floor, allowing the space to host both community and private events.
Comments from the public were largely favorable, though some neighbors raised questions about lighting and accessibility.
Millbrook resident Heather Lavarnway, drawing on her experience as a professional municipal planner, praised the proposal while pressing Sloan for more information on lighting details. She asked for clarification about lighting temperatures and suggested alternative fixtures for some lights that could create unwanted glare.
"This project is clearly very well thought out," Lavarnway said. "It's sensitive to both the building and the neighborhood."
Other commenters asked for more details about the building’s accessibility features, prompting Sloan to explain that the structure would be brought up to current accessibility standards, including New York’s updated requirements that took effect Jan. 1.
"This is going to be state-of-the-art for accessibility, this building," Sloan said. He said he has experience designing buildings with high accessibility standards due to a high volume of work with universities. "I do this every single day."
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Proffitt and her husband and business partner, Robert Bristow, are well-known leaders in the art and architecture communities, and their home, studio and workshop in Lakeville; store and office at 16 Main St. in Salisbury; and gallery space in Norfolk are vibrant hubs for arts and design in the region.
Proffitt has been coming to the area since she was a teenager. Originally from Puerto Rico, her family moved to the New York City area in the 1970’s. Her artist and architect father encouraged her interests in art and design and her deep desire to create. At school, she excelled in math and art and soon realized that this was all she wanted to do. “Think logically and then break the mold with creativity,” she said.
Armed with a degree in visual art from Trinity College, she pursued advanced studies at Berkeley and Pratt before receiving a master’s degree in architecture from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she met Bristow. Both landed apprenticeships in Boston and were drawn to the arts community in Norfolk centered around the Yale Summer Arts Program. The area quickly became their personal and family anchor.
They started Poesis, a furniture design and manufacturing studio, with a small loan from her mother. They landed a major house project and soon met a hotelier at a party who hired them on the spot to design a hotel in Washington, D.C.
Proffitt said, “I was hooked because it combined everything I wanted to do creatively: design experiences in the broadest sense with all the supporting pieces of the puzzle — furniture, objects, art. My father felt that architecture was the Renaissance profession: It holds the seeds of art, design, engineering and all the other ingredients. For me, it all starts with art.”
A rendering of King Winery, one of Pilar Proffitt’s current interior design projects.Provided
Proffitt is devoted to the area. She and Bristow raised their family in Lakeville. Their daughter Grace, a sculptor, attended Hotchkiss and is pursuing her MFA at University of Pennsylvania. Their daughter Ellis, also a graduate of Hotchkiss and Trinity, is a mathematician and aspiring actress in Los Angeles; and their son Sam attended Salisbury School and is a junior at Trinity, majoring in art history with a minor in architecture. They all are carrying forward the family’s passion for arts, architecture and design.
Proffitt’s interior design work and unique furniture pieces welcome visitors at Hotchkiss’ Art Center, the Scoville Memorial Library, her own wHole hOuse shop in Salisbury and, soon, across the street in the new Jam Food Shop, which is expected to open this fall.
The region’s many museums and galleries include some of Proffitt’s favorites, from Mass MoCA and the Clark to Salisbury’s Geary, Mad Rose in Millerton, Jack Shainman in Kinderhook and Art Omi in Ghent. Proffitt loves the connections and new opportunities brought to the community by the increase in full-time residents, as well as impromptu get-togethers with friends — recently watching a Knicks playoff game at the tavern bar at the White Hart. Moments like that keep her grounded here.
In addition to the White Hart, Proffitt is a fan of area restaurants, including Fern for a quick pasta at the bar; Isabela in Amenia, where Michelin-starred chef Jose Ramirez Ruiz is from Puerto Rico; and Clare de Boer’s Stissing House in Pine Plains.
A perfect day for Proffitt is spent working in her studio overlooking Lake Wononscopomuc, without distractions, rain or shine. It is a quiet and peaceful place that supports her many architecture and design projects. When asked what she would say to a younger version of herself just starting a career, she responded, “Don’t be so shy. As one of my professors told me, ‘Sometimes you just have to crash the party.’ Draw, write, run, play tennis. And travel!”
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