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The Robert Hanna scholarship seeks to honor and extend Bob's creative engagement of the built landscape of Nebraska and the culture that lives within it. He had spent much of his life observing, drawing, and preserving the everyday places throughout the state. In his own words, he had “always been irresistibly drawn to are those buildings that nobody notices— the roadside diner, the gas station, the simple neighborhood bungalow” — the fabric of our towns and landscapes. His sketches and observations revealed the quality of these places and argued for the importance of preserving their continuity. His efforts argued for our architecture to be part of something larger - to be somewhere, rather than nowhere. Cultivating this sense of place as part of the architect’s role.
For a time, Bob was a Design Instructor at the University of Nebraska‑Lincoln College of Architecture. Bob’s soul was infused with art skills and he was greatly admired by his students, he brought design experience not only from his own academic studies, but also from the real world of architecture. Bob was a mentor to many and continued to conduct many artist's workshops.
This scholarship is intended to promote those values in emerging designers and to support architecture graduate students interested in vernacular places and the state's landscape through scholarship, design, and preservation efforts. In particular, it should be used to support those students interested in documenting and calling attention to those environments, wherever they are found in the State of Nebraska.