A ‘Geode’ in Big Sky Country

Tippet Rise Art Center opened to the public in June 2016 with a bevy of artworks and music venues spread across its now 12,500-acre (5,080-ha.) landscape of hills and native grasses, cow pastures and hiking/biking trails. These commissions included a trio of site-specific pieces by architects Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa of Ensamble Studio and the Tiara Acoustic Shell, a bandshell done in collaboration with Arup. In the years since its opening, Tippet Rise has added other structures, including Francis Kéré's Xylem pavilion in 2019 and now Arup's Geode.

Arup appears to be applying its lessons from the Tiara Acoustic Shell to Geode, in terms of form relating to acoustics and scenery, the use of materials, and minimizing the structures' impact on the landscape. The new venue consists of four triangular structures framed in weathering steel and covered in Douglas Fir: one structure for the performer(s) and three for the audience. Arup describes them as “harmonic polygons” that “contain sound and reflect it in all directions to create an intimate and enveloping sonic environment.” The inside surfaces of the wood were burned and brushed via a traditional Japanese Yakisugi technique that mellows the sound and scatters high frequency sounds.

In terms of the landscape Geode sits within, the form of the structures clearly echoes the surrounding Beartooth Mountains, while structurally, in lieu of continuous footings, Arup developed individual “micropiles” — "thin tubes inserted into the ground and filled with a small volume of cement" — one for each of the 26 steel members. Per a statement from Tippet Rise, client and architect drew inspiration from Robert Doisneau's photograph of cellist Maurice Baquet performing on a mountaintop in
Chamonix, France: “The Geode, like the chair and music stand in the picture, creates an important, yet harmonious juxtaposition between the musician and nature.” 

Geode was inaugurated on August 17 with a concert by cellist Arlen Hlusko, coinciding with Tippet Rise's ninth concert season, which runs until just September 15.