The National Building Museum has named Paul Goldberger as the fourteenth laureate of the Vincent Scully Prize for “his lifetime work of encouraging thoughtful discourse and debate about the importance of design”. The Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic is currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and has written for a number of publications, including The New York Times and The New Yorker.
Vincent Scully Prize jury commended Goldberger for understanding that “architecture is in itself a form of public discourse”. Jury member Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk further explained that Goldberger has a unique ability to “explain architecture to the popular readership in a way that bridges the perceiver and the designer.”
Continue reading for Goldberger’s response.
On hearing that the news about the Scully Prize, Goldberger remarked: “A long time ago, Vincent Scully convinced an eager Yale undergraduate that architecture was not just about buildings, but about all of culture and community, and that writing about it could be a meaningful pursuit. In a very real way I owe my career to the lessons I learned from him, which is why, for me, there could be no higher honor than to receive the prize that carries his name. I am truly grateful to the jury and to the National Building Museum for selecting me to receive the Vincent Scully Prize.”
A public award ceremony to celebrate Goldberger’s receipt of the prize will be held at the National Building Museum on Thursday, November 15, 2012 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. During the public program, Goldberger will deliver a talk on the state of architecture criticism today, the changing role of mainstream media in a digital world, and the rise of citizen journalists.
Vincent Scully Prize jury:
- David Schwarz, architect, David M. Schwarz Architects (jury chair)
- Deborah Berke, architect, Deborah Berke & Partners Architects
- Ned Cramer, editor-in-chief, ARCHITECT
- Gary Haney, design partner, SOM
- Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, planner, professor, and author
Vincent Scully Prize laureates 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
Reference: National Building Museum
