Grace Farms has been nominated for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP), an international architecture award established at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
The New Canaan site, an 80-acre sanctuary introduced in WAG in September of 2015 and revisited in July WAG’s story about falcons by Reece Alvarez, is one of seven finalists.
The prize is named for iconic architect Mies van der Rohe, a former director of the Bauhaus who came to the U.S. in 1937 and headed the architecture department at IIT.
Grace Farms, designed by SANAA, is one of just two finalists in the United States.
Sharon Prince, Grace Farms Foundation president, said in a release that she and the SANAA principals are “honored and encouraged by Grace Farms’ selection as a MCHAP finalist, acknowledging a new type of public space… From the beginning, Grace Farms Foundation set out to create an experience where people could freely choose to enjoy the landscape, foster diverse community, come together to pursue justice, explore faith and encounter the arts. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA completely understood the social and spiritual potential of this concept, and the collaborative result is now generating outcomes for the greater good.”
The MCHAP is a biennial award, this year recognizing 2014 and 2015 work. The winner will be announced Oct. 19 at a symposium at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
For more, visit gracefarms.org. – Mary Shustack
