Arnold W. Brunner Grant

Single or multiple awards of up to $15,000.

Applicants must be US citizens engaged in the profession of architecture or a related field. They must have received their first professional degree at least five years prior to the date of application.

Proposals should engage in advanced architectural investigation that contributes to the practice, teaching or knowledge of the art and science of architecture. The Brunner Grant is a prestigious award given to mid-career architects. Proposals will be judged on the following criteria:

• Qualifications: Applicant qualifications
• Need: The project cannot be completed without funding
• Contemporary: Engages with contemporary architectural issues
• Relevance: Engages current local and global issues
• Usefulness: Project results in useful end product

A complete application comprises the Application Form, which includes uploading three letters of recommendation. The application form and recommendation letters must be submitted electronically using the online form.

Application Form includes the following requirements:

• Project Description: In approximately 1,000 words, explain the background information for the project and the objective of study, as well as the method and scope of work. Applicants should keep in mind that their proposal will be reviewed by practicing architects.
• Curriculum Vitae: Maximum length is three pages. Applicants may include an extended resume as supporting material. 
• Budget: Applicants should include all expenses associated with the project, as well as any additional sources of funding. Applicants must provide proof of matching funds and/or grants if such funding is critical to the submission.
• Three Letters of Recommendation: Letters must be received by the due date as part of the online application form. They should be addressed to the Scholarship Committee.

Note:

• Applicants may submit additional supporting documentation, preferably not exceeding five pages.
• Recipients may be asked to present at the Center for Architecture upon return.

The application form and recommendation letters must be submitted electronically using the online form. Only in case of technical difficulty may materials be emailed as PDF documents to scholarships@centerforarchitecture.org. Please save PDF documents in the following manner:

Application Form
Brunner Application – Applicant’s Last Name
Example: Brunner Application – Smith

Letters of Recommendation
Brunner Recommendation – Applicant’s Last Name
Example: Brunner Recommendation – Smith

Supporting Material
Brunner Supporting Material – Applicant’s Last Name
Example: Brunner Supporting Material – Smith

Email subject lines should follow the same format:

Example email subject line: Brunner Application – Smith
Example email subject line: Brunner Recommendation – Smith

The Arnold W. Brunner Grant was established by Emma B. Brunner, the wife of architect Arnold William Brunner, in the early 1950s.

Its purpose of the grant is to advance study in any area of architectural investigation that will effectively contribute to the knowledge, teaching, or practice of the art and science of architecture.

Arnold William Brunner was born in New York City in 1857. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied under William R. Ware. He spent his early career working in the architecture office of George B. Post and later founded the firm Brunner & Tyron with Thomas Tyron. Brunner is one of the founders of the Architectural League of New York (1881) and was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (1892).

Brunner designed and erected many buildings, including Congregation Shearith Israel, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Students’ Hall at Barnard College, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2024                                                                                                                                                         

Basar Girit and Katie Shima, AIA (Brooklyn, NY) – “Massive Wood for Massive Change: an Approach to Demountable Timber ADUs for Urban Environments”
Charles L. Davis II (Austin, TX) – “The Black Space Archive”
Janette Kim (San Francisco, CA) – “Property Playbook”
Mina Chow, FAIA, NCARB (Los Angeles, CA) – “Haunted by Helen Liu Fong”

2023

Cynthia Burgos López (San Juan, Puerto Rico) – “Restoration and Conservation of Crash Boat Beach for the Villa del Ojo Fishermen’s Association”
Emmanuel Oni (Brooklyn, NY) – “Beyond Memorial”
Danielle Willkens, Assoc. AIA, FRSA, LEED AP BD+C (Atlanta, GA) – “Tools and Frameworks for Community-Based Preservation Technology on Atlanta’s Westside”

2022

Christine Gaspar & Liz Ogbu (Brooklyn, NY) – “Design as a Tool to Support Community Healing”
Jane Lea, AIA (Brooklyn, NY) – “Monumental: A Re-imagining of NYC’s Commemorative Landscape”
Liz Teston, LEED AP (Knoxville, TN) – “Public Interiority”
Julia Watson (Brooklyn, NY) –  “Lo-TEK: Underwater and Intertidal Nature-based Technologies”

2021

Rachel Dickey (Charlotte, NC) – “Architectural Acoustic Solutions for the Everyday”
Ivi Diamantopoulou, Jaffer Kolb, and Samuel Steward-Halevy (New York, NY) – “TestBeds: Mockups for Public Space”
Rosalyne Shieh, RA, AIA, NCARB (Brooklyn, NY) – “Listening So We Might See: Architecture and Oral History in Taiwan”
Peter Zuspan, AIA (Brooklyn, NY) –  “Performance of Shame: The Desegregation Renovations of Downtown Atlanta”

2020

Marrina Boontheekul, AIA, NCARB, and Rebecca Rand (New York, NY) – “Migrating from Prison”
noroof architects, Margarita McGrath, AIA, LEED BD+C, and Scott Oliver, AIA, LEED AP (Brooklyn, NY) – “Land Ho! The Endangered Mobile Home Park as a Hothouse for Alternative Forms of Affordable Living”
Fiyel Levent (Forest Hills, NY) – “ReProgrammed: A Solutions Oriented Analysis of Civic Architecture in Finland”
Lynnette Widder (New York, NY) – “Year Zero to Economic Miracle: Studies in Architectural Debate, Design, and Material Culture in West Germany 1949-1964”

2019

Richard W. Hayes, AIA  – Build Now: Practical Training at the Architectural Association after World War II
Karen Kubey  – Good Neighbors II
Katie MacDonald, Kyle Schumann, and Jonas Hauptman – Smart Cross-Laminated Bamboo

2018

Beatriz del Cueto — An American Design and Construction Firm in Cuba at the end of the 19th century: Purdy & Henderson
Wanda Liebermann — Right to the River: A Critical Geography of the New River in Broward County, Florida
Joel Sanders — Stalled!: Social Equity & Public Restrooms

2017

Seher Erdogan Ford — From Church of Studius to Mosque of Imrahor and Beyond: Architectural Heritage in VR
Stephanie Ryberg-Webster  — Restoring the Rustbelt: Historic Preservation amid Urgan Decline, Clevland, Ohio: 1970-1985

2016

Nicole Joslin  — Distributed Housing Infrastructure for Regional Sustainability

2015

Peggy Deamer — Architecture and the Sherman Antitrust Act
Mary McLeod — Le Corbusier’s Response to World War II: His Proposals for Refugee Housing
Ruth-Claire Weintraub — Exposure, Explanation, Evolution: the Professional and the Personal in Architectural Education

2014

Chris Maurer — Unearthing Building Potential: A Design Primer for Rammed Earth and Compressed Earth Block Systems

Abruzzo Bodziak Architects — 4D Lightful Gardens

2013

Susannah Drake —Mapping Urban Flow: A Dynamic Cartographic Analysis of Hydrologic Cycles in New York City 

Yutaka Sho — Sustainable Housing in Rwanda

2012

V. Guy Maxwell — Bird-Friendly Glass Testing Flight Tunnel

2011

Doris Sung — Sunny Side Up

2010

Ian Harris — Archiculture

2009

Alysa Nahmias — Unfinished Spaces: Cuba’s Architecture of Revolution