Serena Kassow

The Pines Resort, now abandoned, was part of the once-thriving “Borscht Belt,” a recreational haven in the Catskills for the Jewish immigrant community (including my own family) in the mid-20th century. In my project, Adaptive Memory, I explore the possibility of converting the resort into a communal recreational and agricultural campus and residence using a minimal intervention strategy involving adaptive reuse. Incorporating principles from communal living models that connect people to the natural world, specifically the kibbutz, I analyze the historical and evolving roles of individuals and communities in the delineation of space in relation to the social setting and environment. My goal for this project is to demonstrate that conversion of sites like the Pines Resort could promote community engagement in the Catskills and elsewhere. Through this work, I hope to contribute a new approach to adaptive re-use that can be applied to historically charged spaces, restoring the buildings' meaning and historical connections for future generations. Thesis Book: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18IkI7lun2ObCd96-d4T7xsyrhs1EDszR/view?usp=sharing Portfolio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J2EBG_WYJuUsoGZCEb1ycx0tfTKnalyf/view?usp=sharing @sjk_studios