IOWA CITY, IOWA
The University of Iowa Hancher Auditorium landscape creates a new topographic ground fusing the site and building by Pelli Clarke Pelli architects while accommodating for an extensive pedestrian circulation network, water treatment system, and the reintroduction of a riparian riverfront habitat. The fluid forms that emerge are a direct response to the program providing for manifold circulation routes to the adjacent parking area and also creating topographic depressions that enable stormwater capture, cleaning, and infiltration back into ground. This supplants the old system of stormwater management that delivered polluted water directly into the river, which decreased water quality and increased water volume and velocity, directly amplifying recent flood events along the Iowa River. Theodore Hoerr was Principal at Balmori while leading the design of this project. Images courtesy of Balmori.