For Immediate Release: August 23, 2013
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National Building Museum Names Co-Founders of Friends of the High Line as Fifteenth Laureates of Vincent Scully Prize
Joshua David and Robert Hammond to Accept Award September 30
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| Falcone Flyover, aerial evening view at West 26th Street, looking South. ©Iwan Baan, 2011 |
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Building Museum presents the fifteenth Vincent Scully Prize to Joshua David and Robert Hammond, for their work in creating one of the most successful urban revitalization projects to date, New York City’s High Line. Since its first section opened in 2009, the High Line has served as a catalyst for the re-development of Manhattan’s West Side and has prompted more than $2 billion in investment in the neighborhood.
The Vincent Scully jury, led by chair David Schwarz, along with Deborah Berke, Gary Haney, Ned Cramer, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, selected David and Hammond in recognition of how the High Line has inspired new thinking about the potential to repurpose unused industrial infrastructure into active public space.
A public award ceremony will be held at the National Building Museum on Monday, September 30, 2013 from 6:30 to 8 pm. During the program, David and Hammond will present an original talk, “Harnessing Friction,” on how the High Line tapped the seemingly incompatible forces of money, real estate and politics versus community, preservation and design to create new kind of public place for the 21st Century. Paul Goldberger, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic and a past recipient of the Vincent Scully Prize, offers opening remarks.
Before forming Friends of the High Line in 1999, David was formerly a freelance magazine writer and editor, whose work has appeared in Gourmet, Fortune, Travel + Leisure, Wallpaper, and other magazines. From 2000 to 2006, David was a member of Manhattan Community Board No. 4. Before the High Line, Hammond worked for a variety of entrepreneurial start-ups. He was awarded a Rome Prize by the American Academy in Rome in 2009. In 2010 David and Hammond were both awarded the Jane Jacobs Medal for their work on the High Line.
ABOUT THE VINCENT SCULLY PRIZE
The National Building Museum established the Vincent Scully Prize in 1999 to recognize exemplary practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture, historic preservation, and urban design. It is named after Professor Vincent Scully, to honor his work and extend his legacy. Scully is the Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Yale University and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Miami. For more than four decades his teaching and scholarship have profoundly influenced prominent architects and urban planners.
Past recipients are listed here with their affiliation at the time of their selection:
- Vincent Scully, sterling professor emeritus of the History of Art at Yale University
- Jane Jacobs, urbanist and author of The Nature of Economies
- Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, founders of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co
- Robert Venturi, FAIA and Denise Scott Brown, RIBA
- His Highness the Aga Khan
- His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
- Phyllis Lambert, architect, educator, philanthropist, and activist
- Witold Rybczynski, architectural critic, author and essayist
- Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
- Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture
- Christopher Alexander, architect and author
- Adele Chatfield-Taylor, president of the American Academy in Rome
- William K. Reilly, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Paul Goldberger, architecture critic and contributing editor, Vanity Fair
The National Building Museum is grateful for the generous donations to the Vincent Scully Prize received since its inception, which sustain the program.
The National Building Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to advancing the quality of the built environment by educating people about its impact on their lives. Through its exhibitions, educational programs, online content, and publications, the Museum has become a vital forum for the exchange of ideas and information about the world we build for ourselves. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448 or visit www.nbm.org. Connect with us on Twitter: @BuildingMuseum and Facebook.
