The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver is one of six finalists for the 2023 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP).
The 2023 Americas Prize recognizes the best built work in the Americas completed between December 2018 and June 2021. The selection and announcement of the six finalists concludes the jury’s tour of the project sites. The visits included interviews with the architects, their teams, and the project clients.
“We knew going into this trip that we would be visiting projects that demonstrate the relevance of a simple idea, but one that is so crucial right now: doing more with less,” said Dirk Denison, MCHAP director. “The finalist projects all exhibit a radical generosity, giving their communities so much with the most targeted of interventions.”
Designed by Patkau Architects, the Polygon Gallery the rebirth of the Presentation House Gallery, a passionately independent photography and media institution in North Vancouver for more than 40 years.
More site-maker than site response, the new 22,600 square foot building stands at the edge of urban waterfront renewal where infrastructure is reimagined and culture outgrows from an industrial past.
The main mass of the building is lifted from the ground plane to provide open access to both a new public plaza and a wide view of the Vancouver skyline across Burrard Inlet to the south. Its iconic saw-toothed profile is clad in layers of mirrored stainless steel beneath expanded aluminum decking. The interplay between the two materials gives the singular mass an ephemeral depth that shifts with seasonal sunlight and evening atmosphere. Looking north offers a view of North Vancouver’s expanding downtown core and past this, the towering mountains of the Pacific Coastal Range.
The winning project will be announced March 24, at IIT, recognized with the MCHAP Award, the MCHAP Chair in IIT’s College of Architecture, and $50,000 to fund research and a publication.
The Polygon Gallery has won multiple awards since its completion including a RIBA International Award for Excellence 2021.
