Three leading architectural and theatrical design professionals were recently named as jurors for the United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT) 2005 Architecture Awards Program.
Jurors for the awards are Jack Diamond of Diamond & Schmitt Architects Inc., based in Toronto, Canada; Robert Essert, acoustician and founder and director of Sound Space Design in London, UK; and Joshua Dachs, principal of Fisher Dachs Associates, a leader theatre consulting firm.
Diamond, a graduate of the Capetown, Pennsylviania, and Oxford Universities, is an Officer of the Order of Canada and received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Gold Medal. He and his firm have worked on projects across Canada, the United States, Israel, the Caribbean, Malaysia, the People's Republic of China, Cuba, and the Czech Republic.
Essert has almost 25 years of design experience with performing arts companies and educational institutions. Before starting Sound Space Design in 2002, he held senior positions at Arup Acoustics and Artec Consultants.
Dachs trained as both an architect and theatrical lighting designer. For the past five years he has taught a professional development course on theatre design at Harvard University. He is a member of the American Society of Theatrical Consultants and ISPA.
The program, in its 12th year, publicly and professionally recognizes architectural projects that demonstrate design excellence and the ability to resolve aesthetic, regulatory, technical, and operational challenges for old and new theatres. Architects or project owners from anywhere in the world may enter one or more submissions. Entries for the juried award may be for a project of any size or location -- renovation, reuse, or new. Construction must have been completed by January 1, 1995.
The jurors will evaluate each entry on creative image, contextual resonance, community contribution, explorations in new technologies and functional operations of backstage and audience spaces.
Awards will be presented at the USITT Annual Conference & Stage Expo in Toronto on March 19, 2005. They will also be discussed in a special session of the Conference.
The submission deadline for the awards is November 4, 2004.
For more information and an entry form, e-mail Stacy C. Darling at [email protected], or go to www.usitt.org.