Announcing the Stanford White Awards

A message from our President, Paul Gunther

I have the great privilege today to announce the advent of what will become the annual Stanford White Awards, initiated to recognize contemporary excellence in the classical tradition as accomplished regionally and recently across the tri-State area, encompassing New York State, New Jersey, and Fairfield County, Connecticut. The ICAA is honored to have the White family recognize our eponymous accolade, evoking as it does in timely manner the supreme example of one of America’s greatest and most impactful architects, regardless of design vocabulary.

This initiative is led by the Fellows of the Institute and is prompted by a very generous seed grant from Anne Fairfax and Fairfax & Sammons Architects with an early assist from fellow trustees Gary Brewer and Suzanne Santry. We thank them all.

Application details, rules, and restrictions can be found online by clicking here. Refer questions regarding submissions to Jon Kelly: [email protected]. Note please that the official qualifying rules specify that a restriction for applying is on the location and timing of the competing project across categories, not on the address of the applicant firm and individual designer per se. All are welcome accordingly.

A jury of three distinguished “nonpartisan” non-resident experts will adjudicate from the blind submissions. Award recipients will be celebrated at a ceremony and reception. Details to be announced.

In so many ways both conceptual and logistical, the New York metropolitan-area White Awards paradigm as managed from the 20 West 44th Street headquarters is following the thrilling and in each case varied example of comparable regional annual award programs as begun six years ago in Atlanta by the Southeast Chapter with its yearly Philip Trammell Shutze Awards. Today there are three other trail-blazing programs: The Bulfinch Awards coordinated by the New England Chapter, embracing as it does the geographic balance of Connecticut in line with the conceptual, founding boundaries along with the other New England states; the Addison Mizner Medal by the Florida Chapter, whose inaugural year winners have just been announced; and the John Staub Awards in Texas. Please visit these chapter sites for all upcoming deadlines!

Other Chapter award initiatives are emerging - stay tuned. In any case, what is thrilling above all is how the New York region is following these evolving models, proving yet again that the Institute is not a top-down enterprise, but instead -- and increasingly -- the result of a broad national dialog in which good ideas and proven initiatives take hold among like-minded others, who together define our core mission and its catalytic constituency.

Boundaries break down as well they must and should. Plan to join us by applying as work fits the parameter bill.

There is a great deal happening today as this especially hot summer unfolds. Aside from the very recent final exhibition and certification of the auspicious inaugural 2012 class of our Beaux-Arts Atelier, inspired duly by the continuing bounty of our allied fine arts Grand Central Academy (as of this writing the Hudson River Fellowship students are working at a new location in New Hampshire which shares the same impulse grounded in American painting history as formally intended.) Managing Director of Education Ryan Greene has a sold-out summer intensive session upcoming in New York on the heels of the annual Rome Drawing tour which for the first time combined member travelers with the core Beaux-Arts Atelier students as the final step in the rigorous year-long academic journey. At the same time, we prepare to welcome the BAA Class of 2013, whose members will arrive in early August to newly refurbished studios whose upgrades have been generously donated by John Flower Construction, an unparalleled pro bono supporter of the Institute’s efforts to offer an ideal workspace for our students. Growth means improved facilities despite the severe resource limitations befalling us as with so many educational organizations striving today to maintain the integrity of a unique public service.
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P.S.  Among so many highlights please know that the DVD recording of last year’s Reconsidering Postmodernism conference will soon be available for purchase on our website as produced by the beloved and distinguished Checkerboard Films.  Final status is expected any day.

Also, it was with great pleasure that I took part last month in a panel discussion with the fine Northern California Chapter exploring and explicating the book “An American Palace: Chicago's Samuel M. Nickerson House,” along with its founding Chicago patron and steward Richard H. Driehaus, a valued trustee of the Institute, whose namesake scholars are the backbone of the new Beaux-Arts Atelier.