October 19th, 2011

Last Thursday, the Kimball Art Center‘s Jury selected 5 incredibly talented architects, from a pool of 18, to compete for the chance to design the KAC’s new redevelopment, the “Transformation” project.

Be sure to mark their “Meet Your Designer Night” on your calendar. This evening of presentations will be at the historic Egyptian Theater on Wednesday, November 2nd from 5:30pm-6:30pm. The Top Five architects chosen to compete will make a short 10-minute presentation about their firms as they compete for the Kimball Art Center Transformation Project bid. The Kimball Art Center is inviting the public to attend this free and open event.

The five architect firms selected are as follows:

BIG / Bjarke Ingels Group – Offices in New York, NY and Copenhagen, Denmark; www.big.dk

Brooks + Scarpa Architects – Los Angeles, CA; www.brooksscarpa.com

Sparano + Mooney Architecture – Salt Lake City, UT; www.sparanomooney.com

Will Bruder+ Partners Ltd. – Phoenix, AZ; www.willbruder.com

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects – New York, NY; www.twbta.com

The competing architects will spend the afternoon of the 2nd touring the City and getting to know the programming needs of the Kimball Art Center.

“We were stunned at the level of architects who applied to our competition. The architects in the mix are comprised of men, women, Americans, Danes, Utahans, thirty-somethings, and sixty-somethings. Their styles range from contemporary, bold, refined, historic, spiritual, and minimalist to global. We have an extremely exciting and vibrant contest in the works that we hope will gain international attention. Furthermore, we believe our collective effort will help shape the future of Utah as an important upcoming arts and culture destination. After much deliberation, we believe this is reflected in the five architects who were ultimately chosen to represent the spectrum of distinct styles that will give us an incredibly diverse and exciting design competition,” shares Robin Marrouche, Executive Director, Kimball Art Center.

The November 2nd Egyptian Theater presentation is a chance for the community to hear directly from these architects about their design philosophy and to see some examples of their past work. All of these firms will bring a completely new approach to Park City architecture and as a requirement of the competition regulations, will partner with a local Park City or Salt Lake City design professional with a proven record of designing and building in the mountain areas similar to that of Park City.

After the November 2nd presentation, the five competing firms will have until December 21st to design and submit their version of the new Kimball Art Center. The final designs will be on display for the community to enjoy at the Kimball Art Center, where the public is invited to come and share their thoughts about them throughout the holidays until the final decision will be made in February when the winner of the design competition is to be selected.