Yvonne Farrell and Shelly McNamara, directors of Grafton Architects, have been recognized along with three other individuals as winners of the 2017 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals. The award, presented by the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, recognizes “the exemplary contributions of recipients to the endeavors in which Jefferson excelled and held in high regard”, including Law, Citizen Leadership, Global Innovation, and Architecture.
“As founding partners of Grafton Architects, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara have built an international award-winning practice that has made substantial contributions to culture and education and have embodied their values in profound works of architecture,” said Ila Berman, dean of the University of Virginia School of Architecture.
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This happens to be the third honor received by Farrell and McNamara this year, having already been selected as the artistic directors of the 2018 Venice Biennale, as well as winning the inaugural RIBA International Prize for Grafton’s Engineering and Technology University (UTEC) in Lima.
“Their investment in re-imagining a contemporary version of Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village has been exemplified in projects such as the University of Technology and Engineering campus in Lima, Peru and the Universita Luigi Bocconi – each outstanding examples of the capacity of architecture to contribute to the making of public space in service to society as a whole,” explained Berman.
The list of previous winners includes distinguished figures of the architectural world, including Mies van der Rohe, I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Toyo Ito and Zaha Hadid.
The award is the University of Virginia’s most esteemed prize, given the fact that it grants no honorary degrees. To mark Jefferson’s 274th birthday, all medals will be presented on April 13th, along with free lectures from the recipients.
News via: University of Virginia
