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Fry Fest to honor Gable Former wrestling coach Dan Gable will be honored at this year’s Fry Fest.
Holl describes new art facility The architect showed audience members recent projects across the globe, including slides from Beijing. By JON FRANK jon-frank@uiowa.edu
By IAN MARTIN ian-martin@uiowa.edu
The day before the first football game, wrestling will take center stage at the third-annual Fry Fest in Coralville. Former Iowa wrestling head coach Dan Gable will headline the annual celebration of all things Hawkeye on Sept. 2, organizers announced today. Gable’s teams won 15 NCAA championships, including nine in a row from 1978-1986. At this year’s Fry Fest, he will participate in a takeoff of the 1950s television show “This is Your Life,” in which friends, family, and other guests will talk about Gable. Event organizers hope Gable will bring even more patrons to an event that has attracted an estimated 25,000 attendees in its first two years, said Josh Schamberger, the president of the Iowa City/Coralville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “If you’ve lived in the state more than five minutes, you’ve probably heard of Dan Gable,” Schamberger said. According to Fry Fest organizer and Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth, it was Schamberger’s idea to involve Gable in the 2011 festival. And as soon as it was presented, the committee knew he was the man the members wanted as the focus for this year’s event. Hayworth said that as a former Iowa student who attended the UI during Gable’s career, he understood how popular Gable is locally and worldwide. “One of the things that was brought up today at the press conference was that Dan Gable is not only
The Daily Iowan - Iowa City, Iowa - Friday, April 22, 2011 - 7
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Iowa wrestlers Matt McDonough, Dan LeClare and Nate Moore sign autographs at Fry Fest Friday, Sep. 4, 2009 at the Coralville Convention Center. reunion in celebration of the 75th year after its Fry Fest 2011 founding, in 1936. The initial schedule of The group was active until events for the Sept. 2 2008 and featured UI stucelebration: dents playing bagpipes and • 9 a.m.: Hawkeye Tailgate drums. The group used to Show and Shine Car Show perform at the pregame and • 10 a.m.: World’s Largest halftime of football games. Hawkeye Tradeshow opens Formerly an popular fix• 10 a.m.: Tailgate Row opens ture, the band is now gone, • Noon: This is Your Life, Dan but the former members will Gable begins be honored at Fry Fest as • 7 p.m.: Concert begins part of a larger weekend celebration. Eventually, former Source: fryfest.com Highlander and UI Associate Professor Emeritus Penny popular here, but he’s got Hall said, the group will an international following,” have a permanent exhibit at the Hawkeye Hall of Fame. he said. “The Highlanders were an Gable’s international appeal is due in part to his important part of the Uniperfect run in the 1972 versity of Iowa and all that is Olympics, in which he won a Hawkeye,” said Hall, who gold medal without surren- was a piper in the group from 1961 to 1965. dering a single point. Hayworth agreed, saying Fry Fest usually features an honorary guest or two, that even though the Highalong with a notable music landers aren’t as popular act. The announcement of with the current generation the musician or band to of Hawkeye fans, the event is headline the concert will not supposed to celebrate the UI’s past and present. be made until May 13. “It’s an important part of The second honoree at this year’s event will be the Iowa history, and that’s what Fry Fest is all about is Scottish Highlanders. A former staple at the UI looking at all the great and Hawkeye football things about being a Hawkgames, the band will hold a eye,” he said.
World-renowned architect Steven Holl said he plans to incorporate the environment and plenty of natural lighting in the University of Iowa’s new Visual Arts Building. Holl spoke about his ideas for the building Thursday in front of a crowd of roughly 100 at the Pomerantz Center. The lights were dimmed as Holl’s projector displayed drawings, blueprints, and final products of the projects he’s completed around the globe — New York, Denmark, China, and Iowa City, where he designed the UI’s Art Building West. “This is one of my favorite projects,” he said as the projector displayed a photo of Art Building West before the 2008 flood. “My heart just sank to see the building empty.” Holl said he’s in the preliminary stages of designing the Visual Arts Building. “It’s definitely going to be about the interconnections of art,” he said. The final cost for the project is uncertain but will likely fall between $70 million and $80 million, said Rod Lehnertz, the UI director of Planning, Design, and Construction for UI Facilities Management. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency will absorb the bulk of the cost — up to 90 percent, depending on how much of the budget is deemed eligible under the agency’s guidelines. “At this point, it’s tough to determine what the eligible cost will be,” Lehnertz said, noting the that the UI
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Art Building West designer Steven Holl speaks at the Pomerantz center on Thursday.
Steven Holl Some projects he has designed in the past: • Queens Library, Queens, 2013 • Linked Hybrid, Beijing, 2009 • LM Harbor Gateway, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2008 • Shenzhen 4 Tower in 1 Masterplan, Shenzhen, 2008 Source: Steven Holl
and FEMA still have to solve many issues regarding design, cost, and the original building. Lehnertz said he’s proud to have Holl on the case. “There are few architects worldwide that have the creativity Steve Holl has,” he said. UI officials have pinpointed a site northwest of Art Building West for the new building. The UI owns the property. UI Facilities Management senior architect Beverly Robalino laid out a very rough and tentative draft for building plans, which, she said, is subject to change. Robalino said she hopes to see construction begin in the winter of 2013 and for the building to open its
doors in the fall of 2016. “It all depends on just getting certain decisions made by FEMA and the university,” she said. Chris McVoy, one of Holl’s partners, said he is excited to begin designing the new UI building. “Light can be key in the creation of artworks,” said McVoy, and the group wants to focus on spatial energy and create an environmentally advanced product. “[Artists use] light in general as an inspiration.” Since the closure of the Art Building during the 2008 flood, UI students have been forced to make the journey out to the Studio Arts Building, 1375 Highway 1 W., a location many students find inconvenient and undesirable. “The lighting’s not very good,” said Lauren Hayes, a UI junior 3-D design major. “For art students who like to see something pretty that’s designed well, it’s not ideal.” Lehnertz said getting UI students out of the temporary location and back on campus is university officials’ “No. 1 priority.”