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<br /> ing plant as proof that thee=�'1 .:_ - Indeed, the Athens proj- '
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<br /> addition of one more large <. - - . : 't ect divided the mid-Hudson
<br /> industrial project would not ;- _ communities into those who
<br /> Y4A*Aer,,, .
<br /> be out of character with the u' ? � FF ,w, . t ' rr a4.r1,;.,rt �_��^ ( � wished to preserve the views
<br /> 'f ' ' `' " ' '" "'-�_. ' ' - "` of the Hudson River School region . = e .3 - f : r;, i -
<br /> On Aug . 13 , two days = and others who saw the plant
<br /> IF- �
<br /> after I met with sTOPP, afed- =1 1� ;=s .ar .�,�=-'--- =--s as a chance to add j
<br /> C obs to the
<br /> -£` ;� '
<br /> eral district court judge dis- region . The automated plant
<br /> missed the group's motion , r ' . is estimated to employ 600
<br /> to halt construction of the ► ' fti� d workers for its two years of '
<br /> y � }-
<br /> Athens plant . "While theAlp
<br /> "
<br /> sti5 construction but will supportlit
<br /> ;
<br /> court recognizes and appre- _ ` � . Q ► . w �, only 30 full-time jobs once it
<br /> 1 �
<br /> dates plaintiff s impassioned ' t begins to generate power.
<br /> ] 1 jt
<br /> opposition . . . " wrote the ; ' - sToPP member Mark
<br /> judge , "the Army Corps per- L Teague , also on Cedar
<br /> mitted and approved the Grove's board of governors,
<br /> project based on its determination that . . . aesthetic impacts is less diplomatic : "I ' m ashamed. I think Cedar Grove took a
<br /> would be eliminated or dramatically reduced by appropriate mit- very short-sighted view. They were so eager for funding to restore i : {
<br /> igation measures . " that property that they clearly lost sight of the larger context. Cole
<br /> t
<br /> The judge referred to a memorandum of agreement stipu- would be rolling in his grave. His life's work was not a house in
<br /> t .
<br /> latmg concessions in exchange for permission to build. Acknowl- Catskill—it was a devotion to this landscape ."
<br /> edging that the Athens plant would clash with its surroundings
<br /> and significantly mar a historic landscape of national impor- E
<br /> tance , the Army Corps cut a deal with the plant: PG & E could ORE THAN MERE PICTURES of rocks and
<br /> OF
<br /> build its smokestacks if it agreed to paint them green. trees , the art of the Hudson River School I
<br /> The company argues that painting the industrial complex assigned a transcendent value to the land, a
<br /> "hunter green" and "terra brown" will soften the plant's visual belief that contemplating nature led to spiritual enlighten- r
<br /> impact, blending the industrial architecture into the surround- ment. In the early 19th century, America had few ruins , few
<br /> ing hills and mountains like a chameleon . grand monuments to prove its greatness , but it did have land,,,
<br /> Several preservation groups, including the National Trust, scapes vast and awful. And if the land did embody God, as the
<br /> participated last year in negotiations for the memorandum of Romantics believed, then where but in America could one see
<br /> agreement . Dissatisfied with the Article 10 siting process , a world more perfect, more true to God's first intentions? A I ;
<br /> however, and convinced that the concessions would do little motif common to the Hudson River School is a rising sun, sym- `
<br /> to minimize the plant' s impact on the valley, the Trust bolizing the opportunity to create a new civilization from the
<br /> backed away from the agreement and declined to sign as a virgin continent,
<br /> concurring party. The painters who followed Thomas Cole to the Hudson Val- ;
<br /> As another part of the mitigation deal, Athens Generating ley found that by the mid- 19th century much of the wilderness ;
<br /> Will pay $ 2 . 5 million to local preservation groups to "enhance that had attracted them was gone or quickly vanishing. Even
<br /> the scenic beauty of the Hudson River Valley." Of that money, Cole eventually encountered difficulties . He wrote in 1838 to ! .
<br /> 11
<br /> $ 250 , 000 is earmarked for Cedar Grove , the estate and studio another Hudson River School painter : "I never succeed in
<br /> of Thomas Cole in Catskill, four miles south of the Athens painting scenes , however beautiful, immediately on returning
<br /> plant site—and the money is badly needed. The private foun- from them. I must wait for time to draw a veil over the common
<br /> dation that manages Cole's handsome Federal yellow-brick details, the unessential parts, which shall leave the great features
<br /> house with views of the Catskills has $ 25 , 000 in its operating dominant in the mind. " What were these unessential parts ,
<br /> budget. It sees the money as a chance to restore Cole' s white these common details? Were artists editing their work, brush-
<br /> clapboard studio adjacent to the house . From the beginning, ing trees and cerulean skies over the river valley's brick foundries
<br /> the Thomas Cole National Historic Site tacitly acknowledged and mills? Were they lying about the landscape? E
<br /> that the new plant would affect historic views but never "I don't thinklyingis the right word," says Franklin Kelly, curia- s
<br /> opposed the project. for of American and British paintings at the National Gallery of
<br /> "We never took a position for or against the Athens power Art in Washington, D. C . , `but the Hudson River School painters
<br /> plant, " says Robert Stackman, chairman of Cedar Grove's board knew their audience well . They knew that people wanted t
<br /> of governors . "We couldn't. No matter what side vve chose to romanticized landscapes , and they delivered them . "
<br /> come down on, we would have lost half our membership." Almost all of the Hudson River School paintings are
<br /> r _ .
<br /> NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 200I 39 , t
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