Late August brought a dry, golden warmth to the Hudson Highlands, hazing the morning horizon where the river bent toward the Tappan Zee. The thick summer canopy had begun its imperceptible shift, the edges of the birch leaves crisping into pale amber along the high stone ridges. At Stony Point, the exterior construction scaffolding had been completely dismantled, revealing the low, sweeping lines of the archive building—a quiet synthesis of dark regional slate, dressed granite, and expanse glass that settled into the hillside as though it had been carved from the mountain itself.
Inside the subterranean research hall, final operational handovers were taking place ahead of the formal autumn opening. The subterranean vaults—housing both the early physical drafts of the protocol and the cour
