PRESS FEATURING THE BERKSHIRES
COURTESY: Preston Schlebusch/ The New York Times
Where Culture Meets Nature, Will Bidding Wars Follow?
“Urban transplants like the former Guggenheim director Thomas Krens think Berkshire County, Mass., has untapped potential. So do real estate developers… The Berkshires, in western Massachusetts, draw visitors, second-home owners and urban transplants with a mix of natural beauty and cultural attractions…”
Pictured (left): The Clark Center at the Clark Art Institute, designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
COURTESY: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
How the Berkshires Became an Epicenter of Great Food
“Historically, the Berkshires have been the vacation spot of Boston and New York intelligentsia — the Yo-Yo Mas, the Ruth Reichls, the people who would sooner torch their bona fides than step foot in the Hamptons. But recently, this swath of Massachusetts has given rise to a formidable food movement — a place where the milk remains cream on top, where the animals graze on hillsides, where little shoots grow up to be farmers’ market peas…”
COURTESY: Jessica Antola/ TRAVEL + LEISURE
The Perfect Three-Day Weekend in the Berkshires
“For about 80 years, the Berkshires area has been known as New England’s premier summer spot for culture-driven travel. It all started when the Boston Symphony Orchestra began decamping to the Western Massachusetts countryside from June through August in the mid-1930s to host a season of open-air concerts at what’s become the Tanglewood Music Center—a series that alone draws a whopping 350,000 visitors annually. Along the way, the region’s earnest farm culture and collaborative community have also given it a fine reputation as a top destination for delectable country cuisine.
These days, the Berkshires is more than arts and eats—though it’s certainly still got that in spades. There’s been a much greater focus on improving outdoor access and highlighting the region’s offerings beyond summer. If you have a car and are looking for a weekend filled with culture and nature, with great food to boot, follow this itinerary…”
COURTESY: Stu Rosner/ The New York Times
Adam Lippes’s Guide to the Berkshires
“For the past decade, [Adam] Lippes has made a late-19th-century English Cotswolds-inspired home in Monterey (“a tiny little town with a general store and a church”) his weekend hideaway, the place where he finds respite from the frenetic energy of New York. “You don’t have to do anything there; there’s no cocktail-party circuit. It’s just beautiful and peaceful, with great, warm people.” The craggy, leafy vistas that in a different century were such a draw for affluent “cottagers” (the captains of industry who built lavish country manors) and literary heavyweights (Edith Wharton’s “The House of Mirth,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables” and Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” were all written there), have, in more recent years, seen an explosion of finely crafted local food, an influx of innovative farmers and restaurateurs, and several high-profile architectural renovations…”
COURTESY: Stewart Cairns/ The New York Times
36 Hours in the Berkshires
“The Berkshires, of course, have been beloved for centuries. Long before their Gilded Age heyday as the “Inland Newport,” a guillotine-fleeing lady-in-waiting of Marie Antoinette remarked on the region’s fertility and “majestic forests.” A sense of that history is one reason that I keep returning to favorite Berkshire spots. But this summer new attractions and renovations are making their mark on the county’s cultural, natural and culinary landscapes, and the decisions you’ll face every Berkshire morning — old or new? art or the outdoors? — are getting harder than ever to make…”