Hancher Wins American Architecture Award

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects’ Hancher, a performing arts center at the University of Iowa, has won a prestigious American Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Widely recognized for commissioning new works of dance and music, Hancher is a renowned institution and the region’s premier performing arts presenter.

With its sweeping horizontal forms that echo the landscape and the curving of the nearby Iowa River, Hancher draws from its natural landscape. Inside, Hancher has a proscenium theater with 1,800 seats to hosts music, dance, opera and theatrical performances, space for rehearsals and teaching, offices, a scene shop, and a costume shop. As a replacement for the original Hancher damaged by flooding in 2008, the new Hancher is designed to a 500-year-flood criteria.

From a shortlist of 340 projects, The Chicago Athenaeum 2018 Jury was held in New York to narrow the awards. Over 100 projects were selected by a distinguished group of New York architects and educators.

Now in its 24th year, The American Architectural Awards® is one of the highest and most prestigious distinguished building awards program that honor new and cutting-edge design in the United States. This annual program promotes American architecture and design.

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects will receive its American Architecture Award during The Chicago Athenaeum Awards Gala Dinner on June 20, 2018 in New York City.