by: AIA New York
![Marcus Carter of Object Territories and Derek Hoeferlin of [dhd] derek hoeferlin design accepted an Urban Design Honor award for +StL: Growing an Urban Mosaic in St. Louis, MO. Photo: Sam Lahoz.](https://www.aiany.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/1026_SLD_5266-1280x854.jpg)
On Monday, April 15, AIANY celebrated design excellence in New York City at the annual Honors and Awards Luncheon at Cipriani Wall Street. Every year at the Luncheon, AIANY honors architects, philanthropists, public servants, and organizations that are committed to improving communities through design excellence.
The first award conferred at the Luncheon was the Stephen A. Kliment Oculus Award, which honors a person’s influence on the practice of architecture. This year’s Kliment Award was conferred on Cindy Allen, Hon. IIDA, Editor-in-Chief of Interior Design Magazine and Chief Design Officer of SANDOW, for serving as a tireless advocate for design. Allen spoke passionately about the three constants throughout her life that she credits with her success: goodness, positivity, and community. “Together,” she said, “they have the power to change the world.” AIANY 2019 President Hayes Slade, AIA, commended Allen on her work for Interior Design, highlighting “the magazine’s perfect marriage of irreverent delight in design with an unapologetic quest for quality.”
AIANY presented its Award of Merit, which is conferred to a non-professional for contributions to the profession. This year, AIANY honored Rosanne Haggerty, President and CEO of Community Solutions, with the Award of Merit for combating inequality and concentrated poverty in the built environment. In her speech, Haggerty encouraged the profession to do their part and use their creative talents to solve the city’s homelessness crisis.
The program’s third award went to the recipient of this year’s Medal of Honor, which is the Chapter’s highest distinction, conferred to an architect or architecture firm for a distinguished body of work and high professional standing. This year, the Medal of Honor was awarded to Deborah Berke, FAIA, LEED AP, Founding Partner at Deborah Berke Partners and Dean of the Yale School of Architecture. “For making immense contributions to architectural education while developing a practice of the highest caliber,” said Slade, “Deborah serves as an example to us all.”
Also feted were the 27 winners of the AIANY Design Awards, including this year’s Best in Competition, Tata Consultancy Services, Banyan Park by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners, a project, said Slade, “where landscape and architecture are stitched together poetically, demonstrating the firm’s high respect for the land and for material craftsmanship.”
Thank you to the nearly 800 members and supporters who joined us to celebrate the achievements of our honorees and the Design Awards winners and who came together to raise $400,000. This support enables AIANY to provide programs on issues of substance to New Yorkers in the design community and beyond, to mount exhibitions that share the work of our members with the general public and fellow design professionals, and to advocate for the role of architects and the importance of design excellence in the public realm.
The 2019 AIANY Design Awards project winners are also showcased in an exhibition at the Center for Architecture, now on view through June 29.