KU News Release

KU architecture professor named finalist for National Design Award

LAWRENCE — Dan Rockhill, professor of architecture at the University of Kansas, has been honored as a finalist for a National Design Award from the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt museum.

Rockhill was recognized for his work with Studio 804 and Rockhill and Associates. Studio 804 is a design studio for KU students in which they build affordable, prefab housing in neglected neighborhoods. Rockhill and Associates is the partnership between Rockhill and Lawrence architect David Sain known for projects that focus on environmental sustainability and historic preservation.

The Cooper Hewitt noted that “…in both roles, Rockhill has been dedicated to sustainable, modestly scaled building, creating structures that connect the inhabitant with their environment.”

The awards were announced May 16. In the architecture category, there is a primary winner and two finalists who are honored for “exceptional and exemplary work in commercial, public or residential architecture design.”

The work of Rockhill and Associates and Studio 804 has appeared in hundreds of publications around the world, including South Korea, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, England and Belgium.

This year, Rockhill and Associates was named Firm of the Year by Residential Architect magazine and was the recipient of a Home of the Year Award from Architecture magazine for its Platform House in Platte County in Missouri. Studio 804 won the same award for its Mod 3 house in Kansas City, Kan.

All of this follows the release last year of the firm’s book, “Rockhill and Associates.” Rockhill credits the people around him — his associates and students — for “our collective success” that comes through everyone’s hard work and dedication.

The National Design Awards were created in 1997 by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt museum to honor the best in American design. Nominations for the awards were solicited from a committee of more than 800 leading designers, educators, journalists, cultural figures and corporate leaders from every state in the nation.

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