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Athena Medals
Athena Medal Recipients
CNU began a new awards tradition at CNU XIV. The Athena Medal is named for the goddess, defender of the city, weaver of fabric. It recognizes the legacy of pioneers who laid the groundwork for New Urbanism.
Christopher
Alexander |
HRH the Prince of Wales |
Sim Van der Ryn
Sim Van der Ryn has been at the forefront of integrating ecological principles into the built environment for more than 40 years, creating solutions driven by nature's own intelligence. Described by the New York Times as the "intrepid pioneer of the eco-frontier," Van der Ryn has authored several influential books, and won numerous honors and awards for his leadership and innovation in architecture & planning. Sustainable Communities, which he wrote with Peter Calthorpe, helped a generation of architects, planners and designers come to terms with the environmental impact of modern human settlement.
Van der Ryn was an early innovator, pioneering systems now taken for granted, from solar roof panels to rainwater catchment systems. He founded the Farallones Institute, which served for several decades as a pioneering center for teaching and research in appropriate technology and sustainable design. As California's State Architect, he introduced energy efficient design and renewable energy to California, sparking a national trend. His thirty years as a theoretician and hands-on Professor of Ecological Design at UC-Berkeley are widely recognized as one of the driving forces behind the green architecture and sustainable design movements.
Allan Jacobs
As an urban designer, city planner, professor, and author, Allan B. Jacobs has lead a life-long career dedicated to building quality urbanism. He received a Bachelor of Architecture at University of Miami and a Masters of City Planning from University of Pennsylvania before attending the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Jacobs integrated urban design principles into municipal planning when working as Director of Planning for the City of San Francisco from 1967-1975. His emphasis on the revitalization of neighborhood design put energy and life back into San Francisco at a time when most American cities were decaying. He also helped create greater public access to the city's waterfront; now a major economic driver and tourist attraction.
Jacobs moved to the field of education in 1975 to join the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley, where he remains today as professor emeritus. While teaching numerous planning and design courses during his now thirty-plus year tenure, Jacobs has also written some of the most seminal books on urban street design. Great Streets (1995) was pivotal in recognizing the best streets in the world, and more importantly, defining the physical design characteristics that make streets successful. In 2003 Jacobs wrote The Boulevard Book with Elizabeth MacDonald and Yodan Rofe. This book focused on multi-way boulevards around the world, and showed how they can be safe, efficient, and beautifully landscaped.
Recently, Jacobs played a key role in the removal of a damaged section of the Central Freeway in San Francisco. His firm, Jacobs Macdonald: Cityworks teamed with the Department of Pubic Works in redesigning Octavia Boulevard into a multi-way surface road. Today, only a few years after completion, Octavia is considered a landmark project in the realm of urban design and city planning. The Multi-way Boulevard's ability to increase value to the existing urban fabric, will impact urban street design for years to come.
Click here to watch the Allan Jacobs presentation
Sinclair Black
A tireless advocate for urbanism in his hometown, Austin, Texas, and the Central Texas region, Sinclair Black is not resting on his considerable laurels after four decades of activism. He's helping launch Placemaking Studio: Black+Vernooy's new collaborative consulting effort. "It's a way of connecting an urban design firm to larger urban design, and particularly new urbanist design opportunities," Black says.
Sinclair Black's architectural career began in 1962, when he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from the University of Texas. The San Antonio native (though he was born in Tyler) then earned a Master's degree in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970. He formed his his own architecture firm in 1967, and later formed the partnership of Black, Atkinson, and Vernooy (BAV) in 1983 which, among its many other awards and recognitions before disbanding four years later, received the AIA national award for its design of the North Austin Center.
Some of his more distinguished professional accomplishments include his work in the creation of an Austin business district trolley, limiting the height of downtown Austin buildings, and a plan for beautifying Congress Avenue north of the Texas State Capitol. Through the BAV partnership, Black took part in the design of the Austin Nature Center, Administrative Headquarters for the Texas Commission for the Blind, and the Castellina Townhomes. Black received the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows award in 1984. He also served as Vice President of the Texas Society of Architects in 1986.
Black has also won recognition as a writer through his co-authorship of the book Austin Creeks, a comprehensive study of Austin's natural waterway systems. This study, along with city and federal funding, led to the development of the Shoal Creek Hike and Bike Trail, extension of the Stacy Creek Trail, and the redevelopment of Waller Creek.
While Black has assisted in the design and planning of several projects throughout the country, he remains strongly rooted to the influence and community of central Texas; employing historic architectural features particular to the region into modern design and planning projects. He has earned two Austin Community Foundation Awards in recognition for his civic efforts in preserving Austin's natural and man-made environment, which include his role in establishing the Environmental Conservancy Group to acquire land for Wild Basin Park.
Sinclair Black is a co-founder and principal architect of the Black+Vernooy Architecture and Urban Design firm of Austin, where he currently serves as a committee member of the Austin Downtown Alliance. He continues to serve as a member of the faculty at the University of Texas School of Architecture where he has educated future architects of the world since 1967.
"Sinclair Black has dedicated his entire professional life to a series of grand and not particularly popular causes. He educated two generations of architects AND urbanists at the University of Texas.... He has labored in favor of every key idea that is identified with the New Urbanism, and, unlike many other of his contemporaries, has had the courage to join a movement he did not invent. He is a true prophet in his home town. It is time to recognize his enormous contributions, and to remind ourselves that, in order to prosper and to become grounded in tradition, every town and city in America needs the quiet fortitude and inspiring leadership of a Sinclair Black."
Stefanos Polyzoides, Co-Founder, Congress for the New Urbanism
HRH the Prince of Wales
As one of the most recognizable and influential voices in the world, Prince Charles has lead a public life that is deeply committed to the ideals of urbanism. In 1952, at the age of three, he became heir apparent to the throne of sixteen countries. Prince Charles first attended Cambridge’s Trinity College in 1967, studying both archaeology and anthropology. Though designated earlier, his formal investiture, as “Prince of Wales” did not come until in 1969. Prince Charles served five years in the Royal Navy and was promoted to Commander before leaving the armed forces. For the past thirty years, he has been a figure dedicated to education, health care, and the arts though his 18 charitable foundations.
One of Prince Charles most deeply involved roles, has been in serving as head of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment. The commitment of the Prince and this foundation - which advocates sustainable development and time-tested principles of traditional building and architecture – has produced visionary developments in Britain. Poundbury, a new community being built in Dorchester, is one of the finest examples of new urbanism in England. When finished, the project will include 250 acres of compact, mixed-use development, while preserving 130 acres of surrounding green space. Its density ensures that all residents are within a five-minute walk of essential needs and is reinforced by traditional English architecture.
Poundbury has the sustainable form and aesthetic detail to influence a booming building industry in Britain that has no choice but to build urban. “To revolutionize the way we build, we must use responsibly sourced local materials. Mixed-use should be seen as the norm, rather than an exception in urban development,” says Prince Charles.
Jonathan Barnett
Jonathan is an architect, education, planner and author on numerous books on the theory and practice of urban design, including the recently published Redesigning Cities. An advisor to key government agencies and cities throughout the US and abroad, Jonathan has influenced the way cities are designed.
He undertakes a variety of urban design projects and is helping to shape the nation’s urban agenda. Jonathan is also a professor of city and regional planning and director of the Urban Design Program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Denise Scott Brown
As an architect, planner, educator, and author, Denise Scott Brown is known world-wide for her architecture and urbanism as well as for contributions to theoretical research and education on the nature of cities. With her collaborator, architect Robert Venturi, she launched a critique of architectural modernism that led to the development of alternative strategies for urban design during the 1960s and 1970s, creatively combining elements of modernism with classical traditions and welcoming the contributions of numerous disciplines into the realm of architecture.
Scott Brown began her education in South Africa at Witwatersrand University and continued her training in London, later earning Master’s degrees in Architecture and City Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Scott Brown has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Princeton, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Yale, where she created collaborative research courses in which architects studied problems in the built environment using empirical methods and drawing from media studies, pop art, and social science, thus greatly expanding the scope of architectural design.
As a Principal in the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, she is involved in the firm's major architectural projects and directs their planning and urban design efforts. Her projects range from master plans and schematic designs for the Denver Civic Center Cultural Complex and the University of Michigan's Palmer Drive Life Sciences complex, to campus plans for Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania, and developing architectural requirements for the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian. She authored Architecture as Signs and Systems for a Mannerist Time (2004) with Robert Venturi; Urban Concepts (1990); and Learning from Las Vegas (1972) with Robert Venturi and Steven Izenour. Scott Brown has lectured widely and received many honorary degrees and awards.
Robert A.M. Stern
Robert A.M. Stern is a widely acclaimed architect, teacher, and writer. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and received the AIA New York Chapter's Medal of Honor in 1984 as well as the Chapter's President's Award in 2001. As founder and Senior Partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, he personally directs the design of each of the firm's projects. Robert A. M. Stern may have been the first architect to use the term “postmodernism,” but has more recently been described as a “modern traditionalist” due to his particular emphasis on context and the continuity of traditions. Stern may be most known for his residential design work; his forte is combining historical styles with contemporary contexts and successfully melding buildings with their surroundings.
Stern is a graduate of Columbia University (BA, 1960) and Yale University (M. Arch., 1965). Today, he is the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture where he is overseeing many changes and renovations to the schools' buildings. He was previously Professor of Architecture and Director of the Historic Preservation Program at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. Mr. Stern as the first director of Columbia's Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, and has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad on topics of architecture. He is the author of several books, including New Directions in American Architecture (1969; revised edition, 1977); George Howe: Toward a Modern American Architecture (1975); and Modern Classicism (1988). Mr. Stern's particular interest in the development of New York City's architecture and urbanism can be seen in his books, New York 1900 (1983) coauthored with John Massengale and Gregory Gilmartin; New York 1930 (1987) coauthored with Thomas Mellins and Gregory Gilmartin, which was nominated for a National Book Award, an unusual distinction for a book about architecture; New York 1960 (1995); and New York 1880 (1999) coauthored with Thomas Mellins and David Fishman.
Twelve books on Mr. Stern's work have been published including: Robert A.M. Stern: Buildings and Projects 1987-1992, edited by Elizabeth Kraft (1992) with an introduction by Vincent Scully; Robert A.M. Stern: Buildings (1996); Robert A.M. Stern: Houses (1997); Robert A.M. Stern: Buildings and Projects 1993-1998 (1998); Robert A.M. Stern: Buildings and Projects 1999-2003 (2003); and Robert A.M. Stern: Houses and Gardens (2005).
Mr. Stern's work has been exhibited at numerous galleries and universities and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, the Denver Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1976, 1980, and 1996, he was among the architects selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. In 1986 Mr. Stern hosted "Pride of Place: Building the American Dream," an eight-part, eight-hour documentary television series aired on the Public Broadcasting System. Mr. Stern served on the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company from 1992 to 2003.
David Lewis
David Lewis, the pioneering educator and founder of the firm Urban Design Associates, came to Pittsburgh from England in 1963 to establish one of the first urban design graduate programs in the country at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is now emeritus distinguished professor. At a time when it was fashionable to focus on the iconic value of individual buildings, Lewis saw a larger purpose for architecture in creating “components in the perpetual rebirth of cities.”
Lewis founded Urban Design Associates in Pittsburgh 1964 in order to develop these ideas in practice and to seek out and refine ways of engaging citizens in the design process. Lewis emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between history and tradition in the practice of urbanism. “History is the study of the past. Tradition is the bridge between the past and the future. Unlike history, tradition is open-ended, forward-looking, and perpetually unfinished. It is the vital language that citizens use when they relate local heritage to what they want their community to become in facing the challenges of change.
Christopher Alexander
Christopher Alexander is Professor in the Graduate School and Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.
He is the father of the Pattern Language movement in computer science, and A Pattern Language, a seminal work that was perhaps the first complete book ever written in hypertext fashion.
He has designed and built more than two hundred buildings on five continents: many of these buildings lay the ground work of a new form of architecture, which looks far into the future, yet has roots in ancient traditions. Much of his work has been based on inventions in technology, including concrete, shell design, and contracting procedures needed to attain a living architecture.
He was the founder of the Center for Environmental Structure in 1967, and remains President of that Company until today. In 2000, he founded PatternLanguage.com, and is Chairman of the Board. He has been a consultant to city, county, and national governments on every continent, has advised corporations, government agencies, and architects and planners throughout the world.
Alexander was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996, is a fellow of the Swedish Royal Society, has been the recipient of innumerable architectural prizes and honors including the gold medal for research of the American Institute of Architects, awarded in 1970.
He was born in Vienna, Austria in 1936. He was raised in England, and holds a Master's Degree in Mathematics and a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from Cambridge University, and a PhD in Architecture from Harvard University. In 1958 he moved to the United States, and has lived in Berkeley, California from 1963 until the present.
"In looking deeply at systems in nature and society, and at human aspirations and needs and in challenging us to understand that improved methodologies for urban design are not enough, Christopher Alexander is asking us to keep the eye on the prize: the creation of enduring, organic places that can grow and deepen in complexity and character over time."
Hank Dittmar, Chairman of the Board, Congress for the New Urbanism
View Alexander Award Presentation in Archives
Léon Krier
Léon Krier studied at the Technische Hochschule, in Stuttgart (1964–5), but left after six months, dissatisfied with its modernist teaching. By the age of 20 had developed a strong and enduring belief in the classical ideal of architecture.
He worked for James Stirling in London (1968–70, 1973–4) and in between spent a period with Josef Paul Kleihues in Berlin. He taught in London at the Architectural Association School (1973–6) and Royal College of Art (1977), and he practiced in London after 1974. Under the influence of his brother he also became interested in neo-rationalist urban theory and spatial typologies. The socio-economic dimension of his polemic, which deplores the effects of industrialization upon cities, led him to seek inspiration in the urban morphology of early 19th-century neo-classical examples and to advocate a return to the concept of multi-function localities in place of 20th-century zoning, which he considered undemocratic.
His uncompromising attitudes left most of his projects unexecuted, but his polemical writings and numerous superb drawings and photographs of models were published and exhibited. Such projects included a diagonal link design (1974) for the Royal Mint Square Housing Development and a redevelopment plan (1986) with narrow streets, squares and classical buildings for Spitalfields market in London; the Quartiers de la Villette (1976) in Paris; three new civic centers (1977) in Rome; public buildings (1980–83), Tegel, and the Südliche-Friederichstadt redevelopment (iba; 1981; with Maurice Culot) in Berlin; a master-plan for Washington, DC (1984–5); and a new city of Atlantis, ‘a model for the art of living’ (1987) in Tenerife.
Executed works include a belvedere, market Stoa and summer-house for himself (1987) at Seaside, a new town in Florida planned by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk: the house combines timber construction with classical detailing, porticos and loggias, and is topped by a quasi-classical temple. In the early 1990s construction also began on the first phase of his controversial scheme (1987–91) for the town of Poundbury, near Dorchester, commissioned by the Duchy of Cornwall.
"What Leo actually did at the crucial point in the '60s and early 70s was that he pulled the trigger and actually drew the city entire. No one for 40 years had drawn the city. The project at La Villette was the first time that all of the elements of the city - the streets, the roads, the civic buildings, the mixed-use, the places to work - first appeared and fortunately for us in highly diagrammatic form. We had completely lost the ability to understand how a city worked, that if it were not as clear as Lavallette was, it would have flown right past us. We had really lost the language… I sometimes think that I would not have become an urbanist if I had not seen Leo's diagrams because I would never have understood how a city is made, what a city consists of."
Andrés Duany, Co-founder, Congress for the New Urbanism