Catalogue

Campus Facilities

The College campus contains more than 140 buildings of varied architectural styles, from 19th-century stone houses and riverfront mansions to structures designed by noted contemporary architects, such as the Frank Gehry–designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and the Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation, designed by Rafael Viñoly. The campus is located on almost 1,000 acres just east of the Hudson River. The grounds include open fields, woodlands, gardens, and meandering pathways that connect all academic, social, recreational, and residential facilities. Numerous art installations can be found throughout the campus, including The parliament of reality, a permanent outdoor installation by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. The entire campus has been designated as an arboretum, with the goal of preserving and cultivating the College’s horticultural assets. Among these are the Community Garden, used to experiment with gardening and growing techniques; the Elizabethan knot garden; formal gardens at Blithewood and Montgomery Place; and the Bard College Farm, where students learn about growing food in an ecologically sound way.

Bard has pledged to reach carbon neutrality by 2035, and all new construction incorporates green principles. The Fisher Center, Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation, László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building, and Anne Cox Chambers Alumni/ae Center are geothermally heated and cooled. Solar thermal panels provide hot water to several residential halls, a solar field produces the equivalent kilowatt-hours of electricity that 30 average households consume in a year, and an effort to replace nearly 700 street and path lights with outdoor LED technology is expected to reduce street lighting energy use by a third. For more information on Bard’s green programs and policies, visit the Office of Sustainability website at bos.bard.edu.

Libraries

Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Library:

The Library’s mission is to support the goals of the College and improve the quality of learning and teaching by providing information services and collections in a variety of formats that serve the needs of its users. In support of this mission, the library seeks to (1) sustain and improve its collections and the services and pathways that give access to them; (2) clarify needs and develop programs to help students become more independent, more confident, and more resourceful; (3) create an information gateway through the thoughtful use of technology; (4) and ensure that library facilities are safe, inviting, and well maintained. 

Built with the generous support of Charles P. Stevenson Jr., Bard’s library was designed by the award-winning firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. The resources of Stevenson and its satellite libraries at the Levy Economics Institute, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard Graduate Center, and Bard College Berlin include more than 900,000 volumes in paper and e-books and access to over 80 databases and 50,000 paper and online journals. Bard’s participation in several regional and national resource-sharing groups, such as ConnectNY, Information Delivery Services (IDS), Center for Research Libraries, HathiTrust, and Eastern Academic Scholars’ Trust (EAST), provides access to millions of additional volumes. 

The Library’s special collections include the personal library of renowned political theorist Hannah Arendt and her husband, Heinrich Bluecher; the Montgomery Place library of 19th-century statesman and jurist Edward Livingston; and the Sussman Rare Book Collection, which contains more than 1,300 volumes ranging from bound manuscripts and examples of early printing to rare beatnik and political literature.

The Library plays an active role in supporting scholarship and student success. Through workshops, educational programs, and individual research consultations, library staff help students develop the information literacy skills crucial to their success as scholars and as citizens.  Visit bard.edu/library for a full description of collections and services.

Academic and Administrative Facilities

Anne Cox Chambers Alumni/ae Center: The Alumni/ae Center is located across Rt. 9G from the College’s main entrance. The space houses the Development and Alumni/ae Affairs and Institutional Support Offices and is configured to allow alumni/ae to host small functions, gather informally, set up readings and exhibitions, and interact with faculty and students. The purchase of the property, in 2012, was made possible by donations from an anonymous alumnus and a small group of alumni/ae.

Avery Arts Center: 

The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Center houses the Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Center, home to the Film and Electronic Arts Program; the Center for Moving Image Arts; and the Edith C. Blum Institute, home to the Music Program and, with the adjacent László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building, the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Blum Institute facilities include practice spaces for students and staff, faculty offices, classrooms, a listening library, fully equipped recording studio, jazz band room, and studios for editing, computer music, composition, and jazz percussion. Students have access to grand and upright Steinway and Yamaha pianos.

The Ottaway Film Center houses a 110-seat theater equipped with 16mm and 35mm film and 4K video projection, multimedia gallery, performance space, editing suites for sound and video, faculty offices, two screening/seminar rooms, a film/video production studio with control room, computer lab/classroom with video editing and multimedia software, darkroom, equipment for digital scanning of 16mm film, and a film archive and media library. Students in production classes may borrow supplies and equipment housed in the inventory office. Visiting artist talks, screenings, and symposia are regularly scheduled in the theater.

The Center for Moving Image Arts, which is dedicated to the study of cinema’s past and future, is equipped with temperature- and humidity-controlled vaults to house its collections. The archives focus on classical Hollywood, silent/early sound cinema, international auteur cinema, and East Asian cinema. To learn more, see “Additional Study Opportunities and Affiliated Institutes” or visit bard.edu/cmia.

Bard College Exhibition Center (UBS Gallery): The Exhibition Center is a 16,000-square-foot gallery and studio space in nearby Red Hook. The off-campus facility, formerly the Universal Builders Supply (UBS) building, provides a professional-level space for Studio Arts classes as well as exhibitions by graduating seniors and master of fine arts candidates in the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts.

Bard College Farm: The 1.25-acre Bard College Farm was established in 2012 with a mission to create a lasting connection between students, farming, and food. More than 245 students have worked at the farm and hundreds more have volunteered to help produce more than 222,000 pounds of crops, which are sold to the College dining service and at a weekly farm stand on campus, and donated to local emergency food programs. The farm also works with the campus food pantry to provide produce vouchers to food-insecure students. All produce is grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Only organic, untreated, and non-GMO seeds and plant stock are used. Dining and campus residence pre- and postconsumer organic waste is composted on site and used to build the garden soil, creating a closed fertility and nourishment loop: farm to fork and fork to farm. Crops include peppers, greens, squash, tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, eggplants, okra, and mixed greens. The farm also produces honey, maple syrup, and other value-added products. The farm stand is open on Thursdays, summer and fall, in front of Kappa House on Library Road.  For more information, visit bardfarm.org.

Bard College Field Station: The Field Station is on the Hudson River near Tivoli South Bay and the mouth of the Saw Kill. Its location affords research and teaching access to fresh-water tidal marshes, swamps and shallows, perennial and intermittent streams, young and old deciduous and coniferous forests, old and mowed fields, and other habitats. A library, herbarium, laboratories, classroom, and offices are open to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and environmental researchers by prior arrangement. Also based at the Field Station are laboratories of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Hudsonia Ltd., an environmental research institute (see "Additional Study Opportunities and Affiliated Institutes"). The Field Station is owned by the College and operated with support from the Research Reserve, Hudsonia, and other public and private funding sources.

Bard Hall: Erected in 1852, Bard Hall is the College’s original academic building. It is used by the Music Program and other programs for lectures, recitals, rehearsals, and classes. Bard Hall was completely restored in 1986 with generous assistance from the late John H. Steinway ’39, who had been a trustee of the College.

Bard Information Technology (Bard IT) at Henderson Computer Resources Center: Bard IT provides broadband internet access and a gigabit data backbone to the Bard community. Wireless networking is available in all residence halls and most locations on campus. Wired 100Mb Ethernet ports are in all dormitories and many public areas. Support for academic computing includes a fully updated learning and teaching environment, multimedia classrooms, and video teleconferencing.

Students may bring their computers to Bard, although they are not required to do so; several public computing labs provide Macintosh and Windows computers, scanners, and printers. Henderson Annex has a computer lab that is accessible 24 hours a day. Also located in the Annex is the Bard IT Help Desk, which provides support and training to students, faculty, and staff  For details, see bard.edu/it.

Bard MAT Building: Bard’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) admission and faculty offices are adjacent to the Anne Cox Chambers Alumni/ae Center. The space is shared with the Institute for Writing and Thinking and Language and Thinking faculty. The facility has a reception area, faculty and administrative offices, student workspaces, a central conference section, and a small kitchen and storage area.

Bitó Conservatory Building: The László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building, a gift from László Z. Bitó and Olivia Cariño, is a freestanding, 16,500-square-foot structure connected to the Avery Arts Center’s music wing by a covered walkway. Designed by Deborah Berke Partners, the building was completed in 2013. Facilities include a 145-seat performance space that can be configured several ways, allowing students to reimagine the traditional concert space; 15 teaching studios; a large classroom; and a lounge. The Bitó Building also has one-touch audio and video recording, and live-streaming capabilities.

Blithewood: Blithewood is the home of the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and its graduate programs. Blithewood mansion, built circa 1900, and its site, originally designed by renowned landscape architect A. J. Downing, were renovated with a gift from the family of Bard trustee Leon Levy. Students have access to the Institute’s library and the recently acquired John Kenneth and Catherine Atwater Galbraith Library. Some graduate and undergraduate courses are taught here.

Blum Institute: See Avery Arts Center for a detailed description.

Center for Civic Engagement (CCE): CCE is located in the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Gatehouse, with additional offices in Barringer House and nearby Shea House. For more information about Center activities, see “Civic Engagement” in this catalogue or visit cce.bard.edu.

Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture: The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) is an exhibition, education, and research center dedicated to the study of art and curatorial practices from the 1960s to the present day. The original 38,000-square-foot facility was completed in 1991 through the generosity of Marieluise Hessel and Richard Black. In addition to the CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum of Art, which opened following a major expansion in 2006, CCS Bard houses the Marieluise Hessel Collection, the Bard College Collection of more than 3,200 contemporary works, and an extensive library and curatorial archives that are accessible to the general public. In 2016, construction was completed on a 3,600-square-foot archives, special collections, visible storage, and collection teaching area as well as an expansion of the library and classroom teaching space. In 2012, one of the main galleries in the Hessel Museum was named in honor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, in gratitude for support from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Exhibitions are presented in spring, summer, and fall in the CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum, providing students and the public with an opportunity to interact with world-renowned artists and curators. The museum café and outdoor terrace are open to the public, and several contemporary sculptures are installed on the grounds around the building and across Bard’s campus, including Olafur Eliasson’s parliament of reality near the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. To learn more, visit ccs.bard.edu.

College Bookstore: The bookstore, located in Bertelsmann Campus Center, carries texts and other books, art supplies, Bard apparel, stationery, toiletries, and food items. Many textbooks may also be rented or purchased as digital books. Students may put money into a “bookstore account” via Student Accounts to make purchases with their student ID card. Regular charge cards and Barnes & Noble gift cards may also be used for purchases.

Community Garden: The Bard College Community Garden, a haven for agricultural enthusiasts since 1997, is open to Bard students, faculty, and staff, as well as members of neighboring communities. At one time the primary site for growing crops on campus, the garden served as the launching pad for the Bard College Farm. It is a great place for gathering and experimenting with different gardening and propagation modalities. The Community Garden is supported by a student club, the Bard Farm, Studio Arts Program, and Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck, all part of a new collaborative initiative to grow edible, medicinal, and dye plants for nourishment, healing, seed saving, connecting to place, and studio arts and other coursework.

Fisher Center: Designed by internationally acclaimed architect Frank Gehry, the 110,000- square-foot Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College opened in 2003. The Fisher Center, named for the former chair of Bard’s Board of Trustees, houses two theaters and the Felicitas S. Thorne Dance Studio, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Theater Studio, practice studios, and professional support facilities. The Sosnoff Theater, an intimate 800-seat theater with an orchestra, parterre, and two balcony sections, features an orchestra pit for opera and an acoustic shell designed by Yasuhisa Toyota that turns the theater into a first-class concert hall for performances of chamber and symphonic music. The LUMA Theater is a flexible space with adjustable, bleacher-type seating that is used for teaching and for student and other performances. The Fisher Center is home to the undergraduate Theater and Performance and Dance Programs; The Orchestra Now (TŌN); Bard Conservatory Orchestra; Bard Conservatory Vocal Arts Program; Bard Music Festival; and Bard SummerScape, an annual festival of opera, theater, film, and dance. Plans are underway for a new studio building for the Fisher Center, designed by artist Maya Lin. Scheduled to open in 2026, the studio building will provide additional state-of-the-art facilities for performing arts classes, artist residencies, and performances by students and professional artists. For event information, see fishercenter.bard.edu.

Fisher Studio Arts Building: The Richard B. Fisher and Emily H. Fisher Studio Arts Building houses studios for painting and drawing, printmaking, digital art, woodworking, and sculpture; a welding shop; individual studios for students working on their Senior Projects; a large exhibition area for student shows; and meeting areas.

Garcia-Renart House: Home to the Architecture Program, the Garcia-Renart House offers two studio spaces, model-making stations and high-quality multiformat printing equipment. Plans for a substantial extension of the facilities are underway.

Gilson Place: Named for Alexander Gilson, an African American laborer at Montgomery Place who became the estate’s head gardener and eventually opened his own nursery, Gilson Place is a space dedicated to the academic and social advancement of students of color. 

Hegeman Hall and David Rose Science Laboratories: Hegeman Hall houses general-use classrooms and physics teaching laboratories. Rose houses research and teaching laboratories for the Physics Program, which has a broad array of electronics and optics equipment as well as additional teaching laboratories.

Ludlow Hall: Ludlow is the main administrative building, housing, among others, the Office of the President, Dean of the College, Registrar, and Human Resources.

McCarthy House: McCarthy House is home to the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities and the Human Rights Project. The house was occupied by novelist and critic Mary McCarthy when she taught English at Bard from 1946 to 1947 and from 1986 to 1989. McCarthy and Arendt were friends for many years, and McCarthy served as Arendt’s literary executor from 1976 until her death in 1989. The conference room in the house features Arendt’s desk and three glass-paneled cupboard doors from her last apartment in New York City.

Montgomery Place Greenhouse: Recently refurbished with help from a Burpee Foundation grant, the 1929 greenhouse is being used by the Bard College Farm to start vegetable and flower seeds for the farm and the Bard Prison Initiative. Additional improvements allowed the greenhouse to accommodate a more diverse collection of mature plants that can be used for propagation and experiments, serving the College as a unique living classroom. The adjacent renovated tool room can be reserved for small classes or as an exhibit space. 

Music Practice Rooms: Opened in 2012 and located near the Avery Arts Center, this facility contains a dozen practice rooms that are available to all students.

New Annandale House: The two-story media studio, fabricated from four repurposed shipping containers and installed in 2017, houses the Center for Experimental Humanities. This multifunctional and innovative space hosts Experimental Humanities (EH) courses, events, exhibitions, and interdisciplinary workshops; and contains the EH library, staff office space, and equipment available for check-out on the second level. Members of the Bard community can apply to reserve the downstairs space for other activities. The building won a New York Design Gold Award from DRIVENxDESIGN, which celebrates the role of design in enriching the human experience.

Old Gym: The Old Gym houses the Office of Safety and Security as well as student filmmaking studios and multipurpose arts spaces.

Olin Humanities Building: The Franklin W. Olin Humanities Building, constructed with a grant from the F. W. Olin Foundation and completed in 1987, is the main facility for anthropology, history, philosophy, religion, literature, creative writing, foreign languages, art history, and music history classes. The building contains a 370-seat auditorium for concerts, lectures, and conferences. It also includes small lecture rooms, seminar rooms, an art history room with projection equipment, a music history room with demonstration facilities, a poetry room with a library of poetry on tape, study and lounge areas, and an interior court and exterior terrace that are used for receptions.

Olin Language Center: The two-story F. W. Olin Language Center was added to the Olin Humanities Building in 1995 through a special grant from the F. W. Olin Foundation. The facility features high-tech seminar rooms, a lecture hall, and the Center for Foreign Languages and Cultures (CFLC), which has an international staff of 20 and offers a wide range of tools and audiovisual resources for foreign-language learning.

Ottaway Film Center: See Avery Arts Center for a full description.

Ottaway Gatehouse for International Study: Home to the Institute for International Liberal Education, the Jim and Mary Ottaway Gatehouse is one of the oldest buildings on campus and a designated state and federal historic landmark. The hexagonal gatehouse to the Blithewood estate was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis and constructed in 1841. In 2004, the gatehouse was renamed for James Haller Ottaway Jr. and Mary Hyde Ottaway, who have generously supported Bard’s international programs and students since 1988. 

Preston Hall: Preston houses the Psychology Program and includes facilities for conducting behavioral research and collecting psychophysiology data using measures such as electroencephalogram (EEG), as well as eye-tracking equipment and a sleep lab.

Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation: The Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation, a 70,000-square-foot science facility that opened in 2007, is home to the Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Computer Science Programs. The Lynda and Stewart Resnick Science Laboratories wing opened in 2009. Designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, the dramatic two-story building includes nearly 17,000 square feet of dedicated laboratory space. Biology equipment in the facility includes a confocal microscope, DNA and protein electrophoresis instruments, a digital gel-imaging system, an array of standard and Real-Time PCR machines, fluorescence microscopes, and a wide range of ecology field equipment. Chemistry equipment includes a Varian 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, liquid chromatograph–mass spectrometer, gas chromatograph–mass spectrometer, and transform infrared spectrophotometers. The computer science space includes cognitive systems, robotics, and hardware teaching labs. The building also features the László Z. Bitó ’60 Auditorium, which seats 65; seven high-tech classrooms for multimedia presentations, two of which are set up for videoconferencing; faculty offices; and a series of open spaces for studying, computer work, and informal meetings.

Shafer House: This midcentury modern facility provides office and meeting space for the Written Arts Program. The longtime residence of the late Frederick Q. Shafer, professor of religion at the College, and Margaret Creal Shafer, the building may be physically inaccessible to people with mobility-related disabilities.

Squash Court: The Squash Court at Montgomery Place was built in 1928 by then-owners John Ross and Violetta White Delafield, both passionate believers in the value of outdoor activity. In the 1940s, the building was converted into a “camp” to house guests and visiting family members. The Squash Court was recently renovated to accommodate the offices of the Bard Prison Initiative.

Wilson House: This three-story house in the center of campus is home to the John Cage Trust. All of the archives of the Trust are housed in the building, and everything that relates to the composer’s life—libraries, art collections, media, music—is available to students and visitors. For more information, go to johncage.org.

Woods Studio: Woods houses the classrooms, labs, studios, offices, and exhibition gallery of the Photography Program. It features two black-and-white group darkrooms, including nine 4” x 5” enlargers; private darkrooms for seniors that are equipped with black-and-white and color enlargers for negatives up to 8” x 10”; and a mural printing room. A 5,000-square-foot addition houses an exhibition gallery, classroom, 900-square-foot studio, and advanced digital imaging lab. A basic digital lab, with 12 workstations and a printer capable of handling widths of up to 44 inches, is located in the basement of nearby Brook House.

Social and Recreational Facilities

Bertelsmann Campus Center: The Heinz O. and Elizabeth C. “Lilo” Bertelsmann Campus Center, a 30,000-square-foot facility that opened in 1999, is a central meeting place on campus. It contains the college bookstore and post office; the Career Development, Trustee Leader Scholar program, and Student Activities Offices; Down the Road Café; the 100-seat Weis Cinema; lounge areas; public email terminals; multipurpose and conference rooms; a student computer lab; meeting rooms for student clubs and organizations; and art gallery space. The signature exterior feature is a spacious second-floor deck on the building’s south side. The Campus Center is named for Heinz O. Bertelsmann, professor of international relations at Bard from 1947 to 1977, and Elizabeth C. “Lilo” Bertelsmann, a teacher of German and noted photographer, whose generous gift funded its construction.

Center for Spiritual Life: The Center for Spiritual Life is the primary programming space for the Bard College Chaplaincy. Located in the basement of Resnick Village A dorm, it is home to the Buddhist meditation room, Beit Shalom Salaam House of Peace meeting room, Muslim Prayer room, Center for the Study of James, and a Kosher/Halal kitchen.

Chapel of the Holy Innocents: The College chapel was built in 1857 with local oak and stone from quarries across the Hudson River in Ulster County. A gift to the local parish school from John Bard, who later founded St. Stephen’s College, the chapel was dedicated to his son Willie. The structure was rebuilt in 1859 after the original edifice was destroyed by fire.

Dining Facilities: Kline Commons is the newly renovated, all-you-care-to-eat main dining facility on campus. Kline offers made-from-scratch comfort food and soups, handmade pizzas, global menus with a rotation of authentic cultural cuisines, grill staples, artisan deli sandwiches, fresh-cut salads, fruit and yogurt bar, chef-attended action station, and a selection of sweet desserts. Vegetarian, vegan, and allergen-free options are offered during all meal times. Located within Kline Commons, Clean Plate is a self-contained, designated allergen-free zone that allows Bard to better cater to individuals with food allergies and dietary restrictions.

Down the Road Café and Coffee Shop: Down the Road is open for all meals and features retail dining options including grilled favorites, smokehouse BBQ, and fresh-dough pizzas. The barista-style Down the Road Coffee Shop offers a selection of freshly brewed beverages.

Manor House Café: Manor House hosts local restaurant partner, Halal Bros., bringing more diverse and inclusive dining to campus. Halal Bros. offers authentic halal dishes, including entrees of chicken, lamb, beef, and falafel over rice or with pita bread. Special snack and appetizer offerings include chicken, beef, and vegetable samosas.

Finberg House: Finberg House provides overnight accommodations for distinguished guests of the College. It is named in honor of Alan R. Finberg, a longtime trustee of the College and husband of the late Barbara D. Finberg, a close friend of the College and member of the board of the Bard Music Festival.

Montgomery Place: Acquired in 2016, the Montgomery Place campus has significant historic and cultural assets, including the 1804–05 mansion house, a coach house, heated greenhouse, outbuildings, gardens, walking trails, orchards, and a farm stand. Renowned architect Alexander Jackson Davis made additions to the original federal style house in 1840 and again in 1860, in the classical revival style. Landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing, considered the father of American landscape architecture, created plans for flower gardens, several walking paths, and an arboretum. The College has begun integrating the campuses and utilizing the Montgomery Place facilities. Classical and popular music concerts, dance performances, lectures, and exhibitions are among recent events held on the estate. Montgomery Place Orchards grows more than 70 varieties of apples as well as other fruit and vegetables, and hosts workshops and tours. For additional information, visit bard.edu/montgomeryplace.

Root Cellar: Located in the basement of the Stone Row Residence Halls (next to the Learning Commons), the Root Cellar serves as a lounge space for student use and a venue for shows and club meetings. It also houses one of the largest zine libraries on the East Coast.

SMOG: SMOG, a converted garage, is Bard’s primary student-run concert, performance, and arts space. 

Stevenson Athletic Center and Outdoor Facilities: Stevenson is an athletic and recreational complex made possible by a gift from Charles P. Stevenson Jr. In the summer of 2012, construction was completed on a 7,500-square-foot addition to the facility, thanks to a gift from Stevenson and two anonymous donors. The athletic center features a 25-yard, six-lane swimming pool; fitness center; strength training center; locker rooms; athletic training room; activity classrooms; cycling spin room; and 12,500 square feet of gymnasium space that includes basketball and volleyball courts, fencing strips, badminton courts, and seating for 700 spectators. The addition includes four international squash courts with a mezzanine viewing area, staff offices, a conference room, and an activity classroom overlooking the tennis facility. Outdoor facilities include six lighted hard-surface tennis courts; miles of cross-country running and Nordic skiing trails; the Lorenzo Ferrari Soccer and Lacrosse Complex, featuring an artificial turf field and a natural grass field; Seth Goldfine Memorial Rugby Field; Honey Field, home to the Raptors baseball team; and adjacent multipurpose fields. For details, visit bardathletics.com.