Kaatskill Kaleidoscope

The world's largest kaleidoscope, designed by a 1960s psychedelic artist

Category Retro-Tech, Architectural Oddities, Outsider Architecture

Retro-Tech http://atlasobscura.com/category/inspired-inventions/retro-tech Architectural Oddities http://atlasobscura.com/category/architectural-oddities Outsider Architecture http://atlasobscura.com/category/architectural-oddities/outsider-architecture

Built from a converted grain silo is the Kaatskill (spelled in the original Dutch way) Kaleidoscope, the world's largest at 60 feet.

Designed by '60s psychedelic artist Isaac Abrams - whose work normally has a distinctly kaleidoscopic look - and his son Raphael, the giant kaleidoscope was finished in 1996 and cost a quarter of a million dollars to build, money put up by local entertainer-entrepreneur Dean Gitter.

To view the show one walks through the local mall, and enters the kaleidoscope, where you lay on slanted, padded boards and look up. There are currently two shows, a holiday themed one and the regular "America- the House We Live In." The silo was previously painted in a sky pattern with a face on it, but has since been repainted to black, with an ad for the mall it is attached to.

The gift shop contains all things Kaleidoscope, with fine-art kaleidoscopes going for up to a thousand dollars.

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Emerson Resort and Spa. On route 28, west of Woodstock -- Rt. 28 in Mt. Tremper, about 20 miles west of the Thruway.

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