Trophy Point is one of the most visited places on West Point, serving as a critical portal through which the Academy connects with America. Each year, thousands of people from around the world visit West Point, and in particular, Trophy Point, to better understand what West Point is and to appreciate its strategic connection - past, present and future - to the idea that has become the United States of America.
In essence, Trophy Point is where the idea of West Point began, nearly two-and-a-half centuries ago. Since the days of the American Revolution, it has been used to display captured weapons of war. Over the years, Trophy Point has been the site of a barracks in the 18th century, cadet artillery training, the West Point Hotel, tennis courts and an amphitheater. It has adapted over the years to meet the Academy’s needs as a strategic location. (View a brief history of Trophy Point and its usage).
Our plans for Trophy Point include revitalizing the west end and the concert area. This plan includes improvements for accessibility, pathways, viewing and visitation areas, and the amphitheater and stage. (View a larger version of the Trophy Point revitalization map).
The West Point Humanities Center, dubbed “The Link,” is a proposed, gift-funded facility that will further contribute to the education of cadets, staff, and faculty. It will also provide a unique opportunity to educate the public on the human dimension of war, and the challenges that West Point is preparing cadets to face as Army officers and lifelong servants to the Nation.
The Link features a subterranean design and grass roof preserve which highlights and maintains the iconic Hudson River School view. Its two floors span 42,000 square feet and are surrounded by an outdoor terrace that hugs the building embedded into the hillside. With curved exterior walls that cut into the side of the hill, the Link features a modern design, yet still invokes our history by recalling the form of a redoubt and the curves of Fort Putnam. The entry ramp traverses down into the facility so as not to interfere with, but rather augment Trophy Point’s signature views.
Galleries will host permanent and rotating exhibits that tell the story of Trophy Point and illustrate humanities at West Point. Exhibitions will reinforce the center’s theme and feature military and veteran artists. A café and gift shop will cater to the public as well as to cadets and faculty using the space. The orientation theater will allow Admissions to meet prospective cadets and their families in a modern, vibrant academic space.
The Link offers flexible gathering and seminar spaces, giving cadets and faculty new options for collaboration and study, while cadet humanities and fine arts clubs will have dedicated modern studios with the technical specifications required to rehearse and create works of art. A 200-seat, state-of-the-art lecture and performance space will fill a need currently not met by existing auditoriums and, combined with multi-use seminar rooms, provide a venue to host academic conferences and other gatherings. This theater and lecture space can be flexibly arranged: folding risers offer a “dinner theater” atmosphere, providing an open flow from pre-performance to performance space, while retractable walls can close off the theater space from the upper, public lounge, and gallery spaces.
War has been and continues to be a human endeavor. Unique among the armed services, the Army remains focused on the human dimensions of war. History is replete with examples of what happens when we ignore the human element of technological change. Study of the humanities cultivates in cadets and faculty alike the character and habits of mind demanded in an operating environment dominated by mysteries, not puzzles. The Link will provide a venue to showcase the humanities components of West Point’s developmental systems, and Trophy Point is the perfect site to convey and link people to the human cost associated with the trophies displayed there.