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Witold Rybczynski

Vincent Scully Prize

January 17, 2007

On January 17, 2007, the National Building Museum presented the eighth Vincent Scully Prize to Witold Rybczynski. The award recognized Rybczynski’s contributions as a scholar, author, professor, and architect to the fields of architecture and urban planning. The ceremony included opening remarks by distinguished architects Moshe Safdie, FAIA, of Moshe Safdie and Associates and Jacquelin T. Robertson, FAIA, founding partner of Cooper, Robertson & Partners.

Following the ceremony, Mr. Rybczynski gave a lecture on Demand-Side Urbanism that explored four paradigms of 20th-century American urbanism.

Scholar, Author, Professor, and Architect—Witold Rybczynski

Best known for his work as an architectural critic and essayist, Rybczynski has been described as "one of the most original, accessible, and stimulating writers on architecture" by Library Journal. 

Vincent Scully Prize Winners Christopher Alexander Robert A.M. Stern Richard Moe Witold Rybczynski Phyllis Lambert His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales His Highness the Aga Khan Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk Jane Jacobs Vincent Scully

He is the author of numerous acclaimed books including Home (1986), which has been translated into ten languages; the J. Anthony Lukas Prize winning A Clearing in the Distance (1999); The Look of Architecture (2000); and the forthcoming Last Harvest, on real estate development. He contributes regularly on architecture and urbanism to the New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and is an architectural critic for the on-line magazine Slate. He is currently the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design.

In recognition of his contributions to architecture and urban planning, President George W. Bush appointed Rybczynski to the Commission of Fine Arts in 2005. The Commission of Fine Arts advises on the design of public buildings, parks, and memorials in Washington, DC. In 1993, he was made an Honorary Fellow of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and in 1991 his research on low-cost housing received the AIA’s Progressive Architecture Design award.