Jurors for USITT's 2004 Architecture Award program, led by noted Canadian architect Bing Thom, selected the Brighton Dome & Corn Exchange, at left, and the New Tempodrom for Honor Awards. These, and the five winners of Merit Awards, will be honored at the USITT Awards Banquet in Long Beach on March 20, 2004.

by Barbara E.R. Lucas
Public Relations & Marketing Manager

Seven different performance spaces from around the world will be honored with USITT Architecture Awards in 2004. USITT's distinguished jury included Bing Thom of Bing Thom Architects, Eric Seifert from ARTEC Consultants Inc., and critic Catherine Slessor of Architectural Review.

Slated to receive Honor Awards are the Brighton Dome & Corn Exchange in England and the New Tempodrom in Germany.

Selected to receive Merit Awards are the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts in Alto, New Mexico; Sprague Memorial Hall in New Haven, Connecticut; Stevie Eller Dance Theatre in Tucson, Arizona; and Zankel Hall in New York, New York.

Owned by the Brighton Festival Society, the Brighton Dome & Corn Exchange in East Sussex, England, was designed by architect Arts Team @ RHWL with theatre consultant Technical Planning International and acoustical consultant Arup Acoustics.

The New Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany is owned by Stiftung Neues Tempodrom. Architect for the project is von Gerkan, Marg und Partner Architects with BeSB Schalltechnisches Buro as acoustical consultant.

Merit Award winners are all from the United States. Zankel Hall, at Carnegie Hall, in New York, New York is designed by Polshek Partnership Architects LLP with Auerbach Pollock Friedlander as theatre consultant and Jaffe Holden Acoustics as acoustical consultants. Stevie Eller Dance Theatre, owned by the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona is designed by architect Gould Evans with theatre consultant Landry & Bogan, Inc. and acoustical consultant Riske & Associates.

Architect for Yale University School of Music's Sprague Memorial Hall in New Haven, Connecticut is Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects. Theatre Projects Consultants, Inc. served as theatre consultant with Kirkegaard Associates as acoustical consultant.

Architect for the Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts, in Alto, New Mexico is Antoine Predock Architect. Fisher Dachs Associates served as theatre consultant on the project with McKay Conant Brook, Inc., as acoustical engineer. The Pantages Theatre, owned by the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota has HGA Architects and Engineers as architects with theatre consultant Schuler & Shook, Inc. filling out the all-Minnesota team.

More than 40 projects – new construction, renovation, or reuse of existing spaces – were considered by the panel for awards. The jury reviewed all submissions in light of the award guidelines before making a final selection.

In addition to the awards, which will be presented on Saturday, March 20 as part of the concluding event of the USITT Annual Conference & Stage Expo, all projects submitted for awards will be discussed in a session earlier on Saturday. Panels representing all seven winning projects will be part of a special display at Stage Expo.

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