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World-renowned architects selected to design new Hancher

BY NINA EARNEST SEPTEMBER 15, 2010 7:20 AM


Mitchell Hirsch doesn't know exactly what a new Hancher will look like yet. But the architect knows what it will need: performance space isolated from other areas, good sight lines to the stage, and adjustable acoustic devices, among a long list of others.

Hirsch, the newly selected design team leader for building a new Hancher Auditorium, is no stranger to building performance spaces — or spectacular buildings.

University of Iowa officials selected him and Pelli Clarke Pelli, a New Haven, Conn., firm, to replace the original Hancher structure lost to extensive flood damage in 2008.

Out of four finalists, Pelli Clarke Pelli's extensive research on Hancher, Iowa City, and the UI caught the committee's attention, said Hancher Executive Director Charles Swanson.

"[The architects] had really begun to envision how this new Hancher will be the front door to our campus," said UI spokesman Tom Moore.

Officials aim to complete the performing arts center in 2015.

"It's a sad thing to lose Hancher," Swanson said. "But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to build a 21st-century performing-arts center."

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects designed the World Financial Center in New York and the International Finance Centre in Hong Kong. They also designed the one-time tallest buildings in the world, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and is known for buildings with "curved facades and metallic elements," according to a UI release.

And the firm considers performing-arts centers one of its specialties, Hirsch said.

"Not only do we understand the challenges that this building type presents, but as a cultural facility, we love that it becomes a central place where the community gathers to experience art," he wrote in an e-mail.

Sara and Sherwood Wolfson have donated to Hancher for years, and she said the design selection is a "superb" choice.

"We're just so anxious so we can have another performance center done as soon as possible and as well as possible," she said. "Because we miss Hancher."

Moore said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay roughly 90 percent of the costs for the facility, though there is no current estimated cost.

The committee charged with choosing the firm included consultants from OPN Architects and M.A. Mortenson construction, UI President Sally Mason, Hancher staff, and Iowa Homeland Security.

The new performing arts center will be built 2-feet higher than the floodplain, Swanson said. Near Hancher's original location, the building will be constructed uphill and slightly to the north.

"We were taken by the beautiful landscape and by how many opportunities the site possesses for a landmark performing-arts center," Hirsch said.

Pelli Clarke Pelli representatives brought design models to the meeting Sept. 10, Swanson said, but it is too early to offer a definite image of the building design.

"At this point, all I know will happen is that it will be something unique to Hancher," he said.


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