by: Camila Schaulson Frenz
On 10.23.14, more than 1,100 members of New York City’s design community gathered at Chelsea Piers’ Pier Sixty for the AIANY Heritage Ball, our largest fundraising event of the year. Thanks to everyone’s help, this year we surpassed our fundraising record, raising $1,553,700 to support the Center for Architecture as a vibrant and vital resource for New York City’s design community.
The Heritage Ball is a great opportunity to mingle and network with architecture and design professionals, but the black-tie event also honors excellence in our built environment. This year’s honorees were actor and Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro (Center for Architecture Award); Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of the New York Tri-State Region of CBRE (AIA New York Chapter Award); Marilyn Jordan Taylor, FAIA, Dean of the School of Design and Paley Professor at the University of Pennsylvania (2014 President’s Award); and Adam Weinstein, President and CEO of Phipps Houses (Center for Architecture Foundation Award).
In appreciation of their significant contributions, each award recipient was invited to select an academic program to receive a scholarship for one of its students. The Heritage Ball also honored scholarship recipients Sam Omans, Ph.D. candidate at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts; Mimi Ho, MArch and MSRED candidate at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation; Margaret Gerhart, MArch and MLA candidate at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design; and Shereese Trumpet, BArch candidate at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York.
The AIA New York Chapter works continuously with our local, state, and federal governments to advocate on behalf of architects. This year, we were joined by many notable officials, including New York State Senator Chuck Schumer, NYC Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, NYC Department of Design + Construction Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora, NYC Department of City Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod, NYC Landmarks Preservation Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.
Randolph R. Croxton, FAIA; Mark E. Ginsberg, FAIA, LEED AP; Margaret O’Donoghue Castillo, AIA, LEED AP; Peter Samton, FAIA; James McCullar, FAIA; A. Eugene Kohn, FAIA; Jill N. Lerner, FAIA; Joseph Aliotta, AIA; Herbert Oppenheimer, FAIA; George H. Miller, FAIA; Sherida E. Paulsen, FAIA; and Robert F. Gatje, FAIA, represented past AIA leadership. AIA Brooklyn President Ida Galea, AIA, and AIA Queens President Willy Zambrano, AIA, were also in attendance.
Thank you all who attended! We hope to see you next year at Heritage Ball 2015.
- “Architecture comes from the Greek word arkitekton, meaning we’re going to be about 120% over budget.” Robert De Niro’s engaging speech mixed humor with a vast understanding of the standards of architecture, quoting the three Vitruvian qualities of “solidity, usefulness, and beauty.”