Deborah Kruskal discusses her contributions as Landscape Designer to the building design of Camp

Description

Deborah Kruskal chats with Fiona Rogers during Family Week and details the many building projects she worked on at Pinewoods. Notable landscape designs she developed for Camp include the heart of the Square, Offices and Ampleforth area where she planned the layout of the buildings and iconic stairs that now give that region a sense of compartmentalization and focus.

Deborah delves into her long career on the Pinewoods Board beginning in 1991 and her work with the Site Plan Committee and various architects to complete building projects. As member-at-large for 23 years she worked with Camp Managers Gerda Conant, Jaqueline Schwab, Eileen Callahan and Judy Savage in their efforts towards ecological sustainability, including planting native plants and protecting the environment from erosion and other challenges, as well as adjusting the layout of some terrain to add handicap accessible ramps.

Deborah describes how the area felt before the new building that is now the Program Provider Office was built, and all her intentions in the new design including the amphitheater-feel of the iconic steps that overlook the gathering place between the Camphouse and Ampleforth, as well as her desire to have the area feel like a village of buildings.

In 2004, after a tree fell on the roof of Pine Hollow (formerly C# Minor), Judy Savage had a temporary tent installed over that pavilion to accommodate dancing that summer before it was rebuilt. Deborah's new design included widening the dance floor to allow room for two contra lines, as well as raising the ceiling so Morris dancers could wave sticks and hankies without running into the rafters, and adding a path and sightline of steps to make that space connected to the area around Twin Sisters. The bandshell of the smashed C# Minor remained unscathed, and they moved it back to become a cabin, now called Quite Carried Away.

At that point the previous Ampleforth pavilion had all but rotted into the ground, and she worked with Mark Ward, Frank Attinesio and Warren Anderson (former Interim Executive Director for PCI) and others to design a sturdy new building with concrete footings. The team designed a raised roof to accommodate morris dancing here as well. They regraded the area in the middle of The Square, added handicap accessibility slopes and ramps, replanted the whole area to prevent erosion, and added a retaining wall.

Other projects Deborah was involved in included new cabins Rory O'Moore and Money Musk and the storage barn. Over her prolific landscape design consulting career with Pinewoods Deborah used her keen sense of how people use space combined with her reverence and respect for preserving the look of Camp to use familiar design elements in new ways to improve the landscape and buildings of Pinewoods.

Participants

• Fiona Rogers
  
• Deborah Kruskal
  

Interview By

• Fiona Rogers