By late October, frost had taken a permanent hold along the shaded hollows of Stony Point. The dense forest canopy surrounding the Westchester estate had dropped its autumn leaves, laying a rustling carpet of bronze and copper across the granite paths. High above the river, the sky stretched in an unblemished sheet of pale cobalt, biting and clear.
Down at the lower campus, the East Pavilion’s framing had reached completion ahead of schedule. Heavy timber trusses, salvaged from an nineteenth-century Hudson Valley grain warehouse, formed a towering vault over the secondary exhibition hall. Below the wood, masons were setting the last courses of local schist stone, laying a structural foundation meant to withstand centuries of weather without shifting a millimeter.
Inside the climate-contr
