The new Tom Patterson Theatre at the Stratford Festival is receiving international acclaim before the building opens for the 2022 Festival season.
The Festival’s newest venue is designed to attract, engage and connect community and artists with an organic shape that blends into the riverside setting and dissolves the line between indoors and out.
The project designed by Siamak Hariri, co-founder of Hariri Pontarini Architects, won Best of the Best Award in cultural architecture from the Architecture MasterPrize in Los Angeles, and the Civic Trust Award in the United Kingdom has named the theatre as a Regional Finalist. The theatre is the only project in Canada to make the shortlist of this global competition that celebrates design excellence in the built environment.
The Civic Trust Award began in 1959 and is Europe’s longest-running program to recognize projects that offer a positive cultural, social, economic or environmental benefit to their local communities. The announcement of winners selected from the finalists will be made in January.
“We’re thrilled the Tom Patterson Theatre is generating excitement and attracting attention from afar ahead of its inauguration next spring,” said Hariri.
Finely crafted throughout in sustainable and natural materials, this LEED Gold-registered theatre includes light-filled spaces that create set pieces for encounters that complement the auditorium’s intimate 600-seat enclosure.