Thursday, January 31, 2008
Atheneum receives 2008 American Institute of Architects 25-Year Award
 New Harmony’s Atheneum, designed by Richard Meier, has received the 2008 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Twenty-five Year Award, intended to honor architectural design that has stood the test of time for 25 years. The building and architect will be honored at the American Architectural Foundation’s Accent on Architecture gala in Washington D.C. in February.The Atheneum serves as the Visitors Center for Historic New Harmony, a unified program of USI and the Indiana Division of State Museums and Historic Sites. It is the starting point for tours and a center for visitor orientation and cultural community events, and houses exhibits on the communal history of New Harmony, a large theater, and the Museum Shop. The Atheneum’s galleries also accommodate frequent receptions and meetings, allowing the structure to participate in the vitality of the community. According to the AIA, the Atheneum “was conceived in terms of the linked ideas of architectural promenade and the historic journey of one of America’s most significant utopian communities.” The Atheneum has received numerous design awards including the Progressive Architecture Award for 1979 and an AIA Honor Award in 1982. “The Atheneum is one of Richard Meier’s seminal works of architecture,” said nominator Peter Eisenman. “The design elements in this important work are evident throughout his career, having been further distilled to their most essential expression. While one of his earliest buildings, it is a wonderfully pure example of the recurring themes among his substantial oeuvre; it is a classic ‘Meier’ design.” Mark Rozewski, vice president for Business Affairs, said, “The Atheneum is known worldwide as a landmark work of modern architecture, and it is a great honor for the University to be the steward of this important building.” Rozewski will attend the gala next month, along with Connie Weinzapfel, director of Historic New Harmony; M. Edward Jones, dean of Extended Services and associate vice president for Academic Affairs; and Cindy Brinker, vice president for Governmental Relations. When the Atheneum opened in 1979, Ada Louise Huxtable, architecture critic for The New York Times, wrote, “On the banks of the Wabash River, not far from the corn fields of Indiana, stands a dramatically handsome new building representing architecture's most advanced frontier. This gleaming white structure is as radical an addition to the rural American heartland as Le Corbusier's Villa Savoie was to the French countryside at Poissy half-a-century ago.” Meier was the youngest architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, his profession's highest accolade. Shortly after receiving that honor, he was awarded the design of The Getty Center in Los Angeles. He also designed the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia; the Museum of Decorative Arts in Frankfurt, Germany; and an addition to the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, among other commissions around the world. |
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