The Vincent Scully Prize, established in 1999 by the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., recognizes exemplary practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture, historic preservation, and urban design. Named after its first recipient, Vincent Scully, Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Yale University and Visiting Professor at the University of Miami, the prize has been awarded to figures such as Theaster Gates, Jane Jacobs, Laurie Olin, Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi, and Mabel O. Wilson. The 2025 prize will go to Barry Bergdoll, art historian and former curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Barry Bergdoll is the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University, where he has taught for more than three decades. He is internationally recognized for his scholarship on the history of modern architecture and for his innovative curatorial projects. From 2007 to 2014, he served as Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA, organizing influential exhibitions such as Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront (2009–10), Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream (2012), and Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955–1980 (2015). While serving as President of the New York AIA's Center for Architecture, he curated Reset: Toward a New Commons (2022), continuing his focus on architecture as a platform for social and political questions.
Bergdoll's broader career includes curatorial work at institutions such as the Musée d'Orsay, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Banamex Cultural Center, and the Bard Graduate Center. He is currently co-curating an exhibition on the drawings of Viollet-le-Duc, scheduled to open at the Bard Graduate Center Galleries in New York in January 2026. He is also the author of numerous publications, including European Architecture: 1750-1890 and monographs on Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Mies van der Rohe, and Léon Vaudoyer. His editorial projects include Marcel Breuer: Building Global Institutions, and he is preparing a volume based on his 2013 Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery of Art.
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What Is an Architectural Curator?The Vincent Scully Prize jury, chaired by Paul Goldberger and including Nancy Levinson, Stephen Luoni, Toshiko Mori, and Andrea Roberts, emphasized that Bergdoll's career has combined rigorous scholarship with public engagement, a quality aligned with the purpose of the award. They highlighted his consistent approach to presenting architecture as embedded within wider social, political, economic, and cultural contexts, rather than as an isolated discipline. The jury also highlighted his tenure as Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA, which began during the 2008 financial crisis. During this period, he organized exhibitions that addressed social and environmental issues, helping to redefine the role of architectural exhibitions for the public.
Barry Bergdoll embodies the spirit and intent of the Vincent Scully Prize [...] Through his scholarship and exhibitions, he has opened up architecture to wider audiences, made visible its relevance to our daily lives, and helped us see the built environment with new eyes. We are thrilled to honor his remarkable impact with this year's prize. — Aileen Fuchs, president and executive director of the National Building Museum.
A public celebration of the award will take place on October 22, 2025, at the National Building Museum, featuring the prize presentation, remarks by Bergdoll, and a conversation with Washington Post critic Philip Kennicott, followed by a reception. In other cultural news, Christian de Portzamparc has been named the recipient of the 2026 Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award by the Créateurs Design Awards. Meanwhile, ArchDaily announced the winners of the 5th edition of Next Practices during the inaugural Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, recognizing 20 international architectural practices that reflect a broad spectrum of geographies, disciplines, and methodologies, each contributing a unique perspective to contemporary architectural discourse.
