ASNY The Experience
Your first exposure to Armory Studios NY will likely be when visiting Van Gogh The Immersive Experience. If you haven’t visited yet, or even if you have, let me give you an intimate tour of the home of the Van Gogh Expo, Armory Studios NY. Initially, you will behold the breathtaking scale of the exterior of Armory Studios as you approach from the parking areas, accentuated by the soaring buttressed flanks of Studio A. The impressive architecture boasts of Tudor as well as deco themes and embellishments that hold their own, set against the scale and breadth of its vast expanses of brick. Walk around to Washington Street to behold the facade and, although you are excited to get to the show, take a moment to appreciate the stone blocks flanking and supporting the Grand Staircase. Above that entrance of stone is an oversized Van Gogh banner, sporting a colorful section of the artist’s Starry night. To its right and left are a pair of complimentary banners and beyond them stretching north and south the wings of the facade. You will have to turn your head right and left to take in their awe inspiring spread of brick and its windows, as orderly as a platoon of soldiers on parade and just as formidable, with their steel mullioned panes. Here and there across the expanse are carved stone, deco caps, sills and decorations, in perfect harmony and reiterating the sense of impenetrable strength, as befits the original home of Schenectady’s National Guard.
Mount the majestic Grand Staircase now and you will be faced with massive, castle doors, Go ahead, surrender yourself to the temptation and run your hands over their striking, time figured wooden surface, adorned with oak and acorn formed, bronze fittings, wearing an earned, weathered patina.
Swinging a thick door open, rewards you with a groan befitting its mass and notice that it requires far less effort than you thought it would. Step out of the sun and once inside, allow your eyes to adjust for a moment to the serene environment within.
You have stepped in and stepped back in time, to a different aesthetic and to a set of architectural standards from a bygone time. The vaulted Grand Lobby is hung with Van Gogh self portraits. They look back as you take them in. Stand in the middle of the Grand Lobby and look up - far too few visitors do. Far above your head the ceiling, hung with stylish light fixtures, harkens back to 1936 and the very heart of the deco period, the year the Armory was completed.
Look ahead now to a wall of stepped brick archways, right and left leading to stairs up to the second floor, then turn your attention to the center arch straight ahead where you will behold your first glowing sight of Van Gogh the Immersive Experience. The evocative soundtrack to the Experience is already casting its spell on you from a distance as you reach the first floor hallway, but before you enter the Expo, you are drawn to the brushed steel sign to your left, that of Armory Lounge NY. Unexpected sunlight draws you in to the spacious and airy wood paneled lounge, with its tall windows, pouring in light from the three points of the compass.
Stylish lighting fixtures introduce high ceilings, which give the Lounge its soft lit, evening personality, fixtures that compliment those over the wraparound wooden bar, which beckons you to order a coffee, cocktail or to have lunch. As with every inch of the Armory, the lounge suggests strength and a purpose of design that hints at a long and fascinating history.
Back in the long barrel vault of the first floor hallway, Van Gogh Expo is only steps away and once inside the threshold, a giant wall of the artist’s sunflowers takes full advantage of Studio A’s 50 foot ceiling, an advantage available to very few immersive installations the world over and fewer still, will have a ceiling of such majesty and beauty. Beauty which earned the right to be left uncovered by the designers of Van Gogh Expo, out of respect for the vaulting steel ribs and the wood beams that define its soaring presence. Purpose built for military duty, the armory has, from its inception, also been used to serve the greater good and needs of the community, a tradition carried on by and exemplified by its current, beautiful, educational and spirit lifting assignment.
As you tour Van Gogh The Immersive Experience, remember to look up from time to time, to take in the majesty of what the Expo’s designers referred to as “a beautiful cathedral.
Afterwords, consider this, would your immersive experience been the same, would it have had the same impact, had it been installed in a generic convention center or repurposed K mart? I think you will agree that it would not. We look forward to your next visit and please send us your impressions of Armory Studios NY on Facebook or Instagram.