The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) has announced Patkau Architects’ Polygon Gallery as part of its shortlisted selection, as the sole Canadian building among 38 projects.
The gallery is the new home for an independent photography and media institution that has served North Vancouver’s creative community for nearly 40 years.
The building takes the form of two volumes: the upper storey containing the galleries space, administration and a flexible event space; and the lower transparent volume containing retail, reception, workshops, storage and technical areas, that connects the gallery to the waterfront and to the city of Vancouver across the Burrard Inlet
The gallery, called Presentation House Gallery when it began in the 1970s, was initially located in a community center inside an early-1900s all-girls school. The new gallery’s central mass floats above the ground plane, providing access to a new public space and a sweeping view of Vancouver’s skyline across the inlet. It is marked with a sawtooth profile clad in mirrored stainless steel sitting beneath expanded aluminum decking.
“The outstanding projects exhibited immense diversity across programs, scales and problems addressed; such solutions manifest across a variety of budgets, scales, and sizes,” said MCHAP 2022 Jury Chair Sandra Barclay in a statement prepared by the jury. Noteworthily, “There were projects which address how people live (housing), how they gather (community projects), how they solve problems (infrastructure and prosaic building types), how they engage the public and offer unique spaces (public spaces and museums), and how they honor history (memorials and historical projects). Regardless of their diversity in approach, every project, within its scope, explores improving the quality of architecture and enhancing life. All projects also show an immense sensitivity in responding to their physical and cultural context.”
The fourth prize cycle considers built works completed in the Americas between January 2018 to December 2021. The winner of the MCHAP.emerge prize will be announced on September 21, 2022 and the MCHAP main prize winner will be announced in April 2023. Both events will be held at an award ceremony in Chicago at S.R. Crown Hall.