59 firms want to design new Hancher Auditorium

The University of Iowa received 59 applications from firms that want to design the new Hancher Auditorium.

The application deadline was last week for the Hancher project, considered an “iconic” design project on the UI campus. The UI typically gets 15 to 20 design firm applications for iconic projects, Rod Lehnertz, director of campus planning, design and construction, said.

“So 59 is a lot,” he said. “These are the people who will be primarily responsible for the look and function of the building.”

The applications came from national and international firms.

“It's a huge interest and I think that speaks to the reputation of Hancher and the University of Iowa and the arts on our campus,” Hancher Executive Director Chuck Swanson, a member of the architect selection committee, said. “We are very, very pleased to the number and to the quality of architects who have shown an interest.”

Hancher was damaged in the 2008 flood. That building eventually will be demolished, and a new Hancher will be built to the west and just up the hill, out of the flood plain.

The selection committee will review the 59 applications and narrow the list to about a dozen firms for more investigation, Lehnertz said. Of those firms, three or four will be invited to campus as finalists.

The finalists will make initial trips to see the planned Hancher site, visit old Hancher and meet with UI officials. The finalists will make second visits to present initial thoughts or perhaps even initial design concepts for the project, Lehnertz said.

“It gives us a sense of how they see the project on the site,” he said.

Those finalist interviews could happen in early September, with a design firm chosen soon after, Lehnertz said. The selection must be approved by UI President Sally Mason and the state Board of Regents.

UI officials already selected and received regents approval to hire OPN Architects, of Cedar Rapids, as the “architects of record” on the Hancher project, and MA Mortenson of Minneapolis as the construction manager. The chosen design firm will work under contract to OPN.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will pay most of the cost to replace Hancher, recognized that the previous facility, built in 1972, was an iconic and historic campus building, Lehnertz said.

“FEMA has advised us that as we lost an icon building, we are owned an icon building,” he said. “It is likely to be even more visible a site than the previous Hancher site.”

The estimated cost to replace both Hancher Auditorium and the connected Voxman Music Building and Clapp Recital Hall for the School of Music, which will be replaced at a site in downtown Iowa City, is about $276 million.

The process to demolish the flood-damaged Hancher Voxman Clapp complex is moving forward, Lehnertz said. Because FEMA considers it to be a historically important building, they must hold a public forum about the demolition and follow a very specific process before UI officials have approval to proceed, he said.

“That will still take several months,” he said.