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Hugh Hardy Remembered For Mahaiwe Restoration

Mahaiwe marquee
mahaiwe.org
Hardy’s incredible eye for detail still captivates Mahaiwe audiences.";

Legendary architect Hugh Hardy died last Friday, according to his company. Among Hardy’s many projects was the restoration of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Theater in Great Barrington, Massachusetts for its Centennial Celebration in 2005 – preserving its quintessential early 20th century ambience.

Berly Jolly is the executive director of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. Jolly says Hugh Hardy had a family summer home in the Southern Berkshires growing up.

“And so he knew the Mahaiwe, and had been attending the Mahaiwe and knew of it intimately for many decades,” Jolly says.

Jolly says Hardy’s incredible eye for detail still captivates Mahaiwe audiences.

“It is the appreciation of the colors, of the atmosphere, of the importance of the intimate connection between artists and audience members and audience members with each other so that the feeling is deep and the sounds are resonant and the experience showcases the performance and the art on the stage while also letting audience members relax and enjoy themselves in a comfortable yet beautiful surroundings,” Jolly says. 

The original theatre opened in 1905 with live Vaudeville performances, and eventually transformed to accommodate silent films, theatrical shows, and later cinema.

Jolly says the building’s modern founder, Lola Jaffe, acquired the performing arts center and sought out Hardy to restore it.

“The attention to all the paintings on the ceilings, the details of the opera box work and the original brass railings, and the proscenium details were brought out, restored beautifully,” Jolly says.

Hardy’s restoration project is one reason the Mahaiwe is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“It just feels like you are sitting in the middle of a jewelry box,” Jolly says.

And that’s just what Hardy was all about, says Daria Pizzetta, one of his company’s principals.

“He also loved old theaters, and loved the history of it and knowing about the architects who designed them to begin with. And really, he was like a breath of fresh air, breathing life into these old buildings,” Pizzetta says. 

In 2013, Hardy recorded a video for his company teasing his book, Theater of Architecture. He said his career was about experiencing the marvel of architecture.

“I believe that architecture is beyond just form giving. I don't think that the purpose of architecture is to make things. I think the purpose of architecture is to create experiences for the public,” Hardy said.

In addition to many works throughout New York City, Hardy also designed the Alice Busch Opera Theater for the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York. Both Glimmerglass and the Mahaiwe joined a long list of theaters that held public tributes to Hardy after his death.

Hardy died in New York City at 84.

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