mcdowellespinosa architects

Visual Arts Building, University of Iowa

**2018 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards, Low Rise Buildings - 1st Place**

**2017 Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Prize**

**2017 AIANY Honor Award**

**2017 The Weidt Group, Commercial New Construction, Excellence in Energy Efficient Design**

**2017 Metal Construction Association, Chairman's Award for Overall Excellence**

**2017 Sara Ny, Design Awards, Design Award of Excellence**

**2017 ENR, Midwest Regional Best Higher Education / Research Project**

**2017 Metal Construction News, MCN Building and Roofing Awards, New Metal Walls**

**2016 Interior Design Best of The Year Award Winner – Education**

**2016 Architect's Newspaper Building of The Year Award: Midwest**

Iowa City, Iowa

2016

Type: Institutional

Size: 126,000 sf

Project Text

The new Visual Arts facility for the University of Iowa's School of Art and Art History provides 126,000 sf of loft-like space for the departments of ceramics, sculpture, metals, photography, print making and 3D multimedia. It also includes graduate student studios, faculty and staff studios and offices, and gallery space.

The building replaces an original arts building from 1936, which was heavily damaged during a flood of the University of Iowa campus in June 2008. The new building is located directly adjacent to and northwest of Art Building West, which Steven Holl Architects completed in 2006.

While the 2006 Arts Building West is horizontally porous and of planar composition, the new building is vertically porous and volumetrically composed. The aim of maximum interaction between all departments of the school takes shape in social circulation spaces.

Credits

Design: 

Steven Holl Architects

Steven Holl ( design architect, principal )

Chris McVoy ( design architect, partner in charge )

Rychiee Espinosa ( project architect, associate )

Design Team:

JongSeo Lee, Garrick Ambrose, Filipe Taboada, Christiane Deptolla, Garrett Ricciardi, Christopher Rotman, Christina Yessios, Johanna Muszbek, Yiqing Zhao, Bell Ying Yi Cai

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Associate Architects:

BNIM Architects

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Landscape Architect:

BNIM Architects

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Structural Engineer:

Buro Happold

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Photography:

Iwan Baan