The Center for Architecture and Design has announced Theaster Gates as the 2017 recipient of its Edmund N. Bacon Award, which honors one individual who has advocated for excellence in urban development, planning, thought, and design.
A Chicago-based artist and community developer, Gates is the founder of the Rebuild Foundation, which focuses on improving the quality of urban life by planning and designing active and engaged communities. “Under Gates’ leadership, the Rebuild Foundation currently manages projects in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood of Chicago. Program sites include the Stony Island Arts Bank, the Black Cinema House, the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative, Archive House, and Listening House.”
Gates will be honored at the 11th annual Edmund N. Bacon Awards + Talk, which will feature a talk by Gates and presentations of the winning student designs of the 2017 Better Philadelphia Challenge. This urban design competition asked college students to propose a design for the currently unused City Branch tunnel, which runs under Pennsylvania Avenue in Philadelphia.
Past winners of the award include Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Denise Scott Brown, co-founder of VSB Architects, and Jan Gehl, founder of Gehl Architects.
News via the Center for Architecture and Design.
