This is exciting. Institute President Paul Gunther writes:
In May, I had the honor to serve on the inaugural jury charged with selection of the first annual Ferguson Jacobs Prize in Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
As the Institute reported in the spring of 2006, this permanent endowment was established by our board member Mark Ferguson and his wife and colleague, Natalie Jacobs, at their joint graduate alma mater as a way to promote the continuity of tradition in contemporary architectural practice. Both students and faculty are eligible to apply and they do so with specific project proposals tied to their current interests which the prize’s precious and timely subsidy can directly advance.

My fellow jurors for this auspicious launch were members of Carnegie Mellon’s faculty: Laura Lee, FAIA, Professor and Head of the School of Architecture; Stephen Lee, AIA (no relation to Ms. Lee), Professor; and Joseph Coohill, Adjunct Professor. With the prize’s generous creation last year, the donors kindly specified that in each cycle there be one juror chosen by the ICA&CA. The precedent is thus duly set.
After careful review and rigorous discussion, the jurors voted unanimously to divide the 2007 prize proceeds between two members of the School of Architecture’s faculty: Professor Omer Akin and Associate Professor Diane Shaw. In very distinct ways, their projects described the promise of scholarship in the pursuit of design excellence based upon established principles that can foster beauty and harmony in America’s built future. Conceptual divergence paradoxically revealed a unity of classical impulse worthy of encouragement at this time of the prize's launch.
Besides his distinguished academic career, Professor Akin serves as the architect of record for the rapidly unfolding Turkish Nationality Room for the University of Pittsburgh’s fabled Cathedral of Learning. Slated for a 2008 completion, the Turkish Nationality Room will be the 27th classroom shaped by the design and craft traditions of a specific nation or culture to be located in Charles Klauder’s 1937 Gothic tower, which rises as the university’s landmark beacon.
His 2007 Ferguson Jacobs Prize will allow detailed analysis and the ensuing design and procurement of carpentry fittings in the 1000-year old Kundekari technique as both the decorative and symbolic core of the Turkish Nationality Room’s architectural format.
Professor Akin describes it best in his application:
Kundekari is a form of carpentry which marks the highest level of craft found in Classical Turkish interiors, going back a millennium if not longer. It consists of interlocking wooden tongue-and-groove elements which evolved from what was initially a collapsible framework to solid wooden planks incorporated into a fixed scheme. The technique’s traditional role through architectonic character and cultural symbolism provides a perfect fit with the requirements of the Turkish Nationality Room’s design. Kundekari is a disappearing craft. Consequently, its contemporary use is anything but straightforward. Further research and careful collaboration between me and the surviving masters of this complex technique are now required. Prize proceeds will fund this enterprise accordingly. The final product of this project will not only be the Turkish Room’s advent within the Cathedral of Learning, but also a manuscript based upon the research conducted and the knowledge of the craftsmen who do the work.
Travel subsidies for both the architect and the Kundekari masters will make it happen. The Philadelphia Chapter now expanding its geographic scope and resulting moniker will make sure that Institute members enjoy a preview examination once it is complete.
In thrilling pedagogical contrast, Carnegie Mellon Associate Professor Dr. Diane Shaw proposes to continue her research for a book exploring Village Improvement and the New England Landscape. In consideration of the ICA&CA’s embrace of traditional town planning and its lessons for modem application--above all via the pathbreaking work of New Urbanists--its pertinence is spot on. A greater historical and theoretical understanding of this movement will shape its currency and critical authority. Such study is called for across Institute priorities and Dr. Shaw has stepped forward for what relates to one key programmatic aspect. What her research promises is a fuller understanding of what constitutes historical authenticity and the continuum of style as it accords with contemporary values and social needs. The classical tradition as a constant, dynamic force tapped to meet present-day needs can best be strengthened through careful analysis of precedent.
As with her co-recipient Professor Akin, a précis of Dr. Shaw’s proposed abstract summarizes her scholarly goals ideally:
At the opening of the 20th century--despite the iconic white Neo-classical and Greek Revival churches, civic centers and houses anchoring many of New England’s town greens--today’s postcard-perfect town plan had not yet been invented. Rather, villagers were looking for ways to reinvigorate an increasingly threatened way of rural life. Local agriculture and manufacturing could not compete with Midwestern farms and industrial centers. Villages were shriveling as they lost their sons and daughters to better opportunities afar. Amid scattered reports of New England’s scenic beauty were also jeremiads to its degeneration. In response, village improvement societies re-conceptualized their townscapes into tools for architectural, social, and economic regeneration. By preserving such pre-industrial townscapes and improving them with street paving, lighting, landscaping, and new Colonial Revival design, village improvement societies chose beauty and harmony as their arsenal of choice: a beauty which they hoped would reinforce the bonds of community as well as attract newcomers.
And so they did. With the prize subsidy, Dr. Shaw will help fill in the gaps of understanding of this movement and the communities they serve with travel and greater access to little-known primary resources. As she stated eloquently, it is both, “an overlooked rural corollary to the City Beautiful Movement and paradigm of cultural landscape at a time today when the village ideal is being touted and explored by the New Urbanists.”
Going forward, the Institute cherishes this kind of intellectual rigor alongside the instruction of formal principles and time-tested rules. Her work will be welcomed eagerly by those who teach and interpret here in New York and at the chapters for a growing national constituency.
In the words of Natalie Jacobs and Mark Ferguson:
We established the prize at the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon because we felt that there was an interest in traditional design not being met by the standard curriculum, yet prospectively revealed by new opportunity. The original campus plan and its Henry Hornbostel buildings constitute an ideal expression of traditional design idea adapted to a 20th-century program. This environment inherently supports students and teachers interested in carrying forward the Western classical tradition to modern practice. Our Prize is a catalyst to encourage such discovery in the 21st century. We are delighted that the first two recipients support both the creation of traditional form in a new setting as well as the inquiry called for in understanding how classical principles have helped modernize America while sustaining the historical character valued by so many of its communities.
Conceptual divergence paradoxically revealed a unity of classical impulse worthy of encouragement at this time of the prize's launch.
Posted by: darkfall gold | January 12, 2010 at 09:19 PM