The National Building Museum announced that Theaster Gates will be the 25th recipient of the Vincent Scully Prize. Initiated in 1999, the award serves as a recognition of excellence in the fields of design, architecture, historic preservation, urban design, encompassing practice, and criticism. Theaster Gates is an artist internationally renowned for his interdisciplinary blend of social performance, urban regeneration, and cultural activations.
The National Building Museum has announced that Dolores Hayden, professor emerita of architecture, urbanism, and American studies at Yale University, is this year’s recipient of the Vincent Scully Prize. As an urban historian and architect, Dolores Hayden has focused throughout her career on the politics of place and the stereotypes of gender and race embedded in American-built environments. As the 24th recipient of the Vincent Scully Prize, Dolores Hayden joins esteemed past recipients, including Mabel O. Wilson, Elizabeth Meyer, Robert Campbell, and Inga Saffron.
The National Building Museum has announced critics Inga Saffron and Robert Campbell as the recipients of the 2018 Vincent Scully Prize. The award celebrates the pair's thoughtful, insightful, and clear journalistic observations and criticisms of the built environment. Both Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, the two are honored by the Museum for their ability to reveal how smart architecture criticism can raise the consciousness and expectations for the built environment.
The National Building Museum has announced Charlie Rose as the recipient of the 2014 Vincent Scully Prize. The American talk show host and journalist was honored for his exploration “good design, the growth of cities, and the shape of the urban form through his insightful and substantive conversations with leading thinkers of our day.”
"One of the great joys of spending twenty-five years at the table is meeting a cross-section of the best in culture and science and technology," said Rose. "I have a special place for the men and women who inspire us with the buildings they create. Architecture is a passion of mine and I’ve been proud to know not only architects but also those who teach, assess, and love great buildings. Architecture is one of the reflections of the permanence of a civilization. I am indeed honored to be the recipient of the Vincent Scully Prize, named for a man I have known, admired, and interviewed."
The National Building Museum has awarded the 15th Vincent Scully Prize to Joshua David and Robert Hammond, the founders of the High Line in New York. In 1999 the pair formed the non-profit organisation Friends of the High Line; this award recognizing their efforts in transforming the abandoned structure is the latest accolade for the internationally celebrated project. David and Hammond were also awarded the Jane Jacobs Medal in 2010.
Read more about the award and the High Line after the break.
There’s a saying that goes “Those who can’t do, teach.” But many could also claim: “Those who can’t do, critique.” Criticism, particularly Architecture Criticism, tends to get a bad rap for being subjective, impenetrable, and - ultimately - useless. But Paul Goldberger, a champion of the craft, would disagree.
In his acceptance speech for the Vincent Scully Prize earlier this month, Goldberger, the long-time architecture critic for The New York Times and current contributor to Vanity Fair, suggests that Architectural Criticism isn’t just vital - but more important than ever before.
With the advent of visually-oriented social media like Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, it’s never been easier for the architectural layman to observe, share, and consume architecture. However, in the midst of this hyper-flow of image intake, Goldberger argues, meaning gets lost.
That’s where the critic comes in.
National Building Museum and Metropolis Magazine contributor Andrew Caruso takes you “inside the design mind” of Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger.
It’s rare to find someone willing to pay for opinions these days, and rarer still to be known for them. Yet, Paul Goldberger has crafted a career by objectively navigating the subjective. As an arbiter of quality in architecture and design for nearly four decades, he spends a few moments with me to reminisce about the “short break” he took from journalism that led to, among many accolades, the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and, more recently, the Scully Prize.
Andrew Caruso: You’re being recognized this year by the National Building Museum with the Vincent Scully prize. Given your relationship with Scully began when you were a student at Yale, this must be a very meaningful award.
Paul Goldberger: Scully was very much a teacher and mentor to me. Actually my first exposure to him was a high school visit to Yale. I observed one of his classes and was blown away. He was one of the reasons I wanted to go to Yale in the first place and I was lucky to work with him through college and as my thesis adviser.
The complete interview after the break…
