The ICAA Announces Winners of the 2025 Arthur Ross Awards for Excellence in the Classical Tradition

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The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) announces the winners of the 2025 Arthur Ross Awards for Excellence in the Classical Tradition. This year’s winners—an illustrious roster of architects, designers, artisans, preservationists, and writers—include Hugh Petter, Brockschmidt & Coleman, Hank Silver, Craig Bergmann Landscape Design, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and Clive Aslet.

In a dinner to be held on Monday, May 12th at Cipriani 42nd Street, the following will be honored, by category.

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ARCHITECTURE | Hugh Petter, London, UK

Hugh Petter is a prolific traditional architect and urban designer. In 2024 he gave the ICAA’s 23rd Annual McKim lecture, “The Value of Tradition, a Personal Journey.” His monograph Living Tradition, with a foreword by the former Prince of Wales, was published by Triglyph Books in 2023.

Hugh has been a director of ADAM Architecture since 1997. He believes passionately that traditional design principles can improve everyone’s lives and is perhaps best known for his work for the Duchy of Cornwall: since 2003 he has been both the master-planner and coordinating architect for Nansledan, a 4,000 home mixed-use urban extension regarded by the current British Government as the benchmark for new developments.

His diverse international project portfolio includes new and historic town and country houses; commercial, retail, sports venue, and tertiary education projects; and masterplans for mixed use developments. Recent award-winning projects include a new entrance at The Oval for Surrey Cricket Club in London, the restoration of the Grade I Listed Chettle House in Dorset, and the new multipurpose Levine Building at Oxford’s Trinity College.

Hugh was taught by Peter Hodson, recipient of the Arthur Ross Award for Architectural Education in 2007. After graduating, he won two successive Rome Scholarships in Architecture before returning to London to establish a Foundation Course in Architecture for HRH The Prince of Wales in 1993. He has served as trustee and Vice Chairman of the Georgian Group, trustee of The Prince’s Foundation, and trustee and Chairman of the Art Workers’ Guild. His writing on architecture is published regularly and he is a visiting tutor to many colleges.

INTERIOR DESIGN | Brockschmidt & Coleman, New York City, NY, US

Bill Brockschmidt and Courtney Coleman bring to their work a focus on traditional detailing, proportion, materials, and craftsmanship in both architectural elements and in furnishings. Their work emphasizes appropriateness and clarity, with the aim of bringing a modern sensibility to historical references. The resulting interiors reflect each client’s own personality and lifestyle in a creative, sophisticated manner that is timeless yet unexpected. The style of each project may be unique, but their rooms are often characterized by interesting color choices, dynamic and balanced furniture plans, and a thoughtful mix of antiques, custom furniture, and contemporary elements.

From offices in New York City and New Orleans they have designed projects on the east coast from Maine to Florida, throughout the southern states, and in California, Bermuda, and Europe.

Their work has been featured in Frederic, Veranda, Architectural Digest, Departures, Elle Décor, House Beautiful, Traditional Home, Garden & Gun, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal as well as in several design books. Brockschmidt & Coleman has been included on Elle Décor’s A-List annually since 2012. They have lectured at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, Winterthur, the American College of the Building Arts, the University of Notre Dame, and Longue Vue Museum and Garden.

In addition, they have been invited to contribute designs for philanthropic events for the New York Botanical Garden, New Orleans Museum of Art, Historic BK House in New Orleans, and the Historic Savannah Foundation.

ARTISANSHIP & CRAFTSMANSHIP | Hank Silver, Paris, FR

Hank Silver is an American timber frame carpenter who has spent close to two years working on the restoration of the medieval roof framing of Notre Dame de Paris.

Born in New York City, Silver honed his craft in Vermont, where he learned to build barns and house frames using traditional mortise and tenon joinery. Eventually settling in western Massachusetts, Silver established his own timber frame workshop, Ironwood Timberworks. Since 2018, Silver has been a member of the France-based volunteer crew, Charpentiers sans Frontières (Carpenters Without Borders), a non-profit whose mission is the restoration of world carpentry heritage and the transmission of the skills and techniques to future generations of craftspeople.

Working alongside carpenters from all over the world, and employing only traditional tools and methods, he has taken part in uniquely rewarding projects, such as reconstructing a 12th-century castle bridge in Normandy and rebuilding the roof of the chapel that houses the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci in the Loire Valley. Silver co-led the group’s 2019 project to build a hand-hewn blacksmith's forge in Maine, their first project in North America.

Silver is an active member of the Timber Framers Guild. He has authored several articles for the guild journal Timberframing on a variety of subjects, including an historic survey of an unusual curved wooden bridge in Massachusetts. He has taught traditional American timber framing at Yestermorrow (Vermont) and The Heartwood School (New Hampshire), as well as courses on the French technique known as piquage (French scribing) in the US and Estonia.

In January of 2023, Silver moved to France at the invitation of Ateliers Desmonts, where he worked as a lead carpenter on the reconstruction of the 13th-century roof framing of the nave of Notre-Dame de Paris at the company’s workshop in Normandy. Starting with 600 oak logs, the crew hewed some 1100 beams using medieval-patterned axes. The wooden joinery of the truss work was then laid-out and cut, and the entire frame of the nave test-fit in Normandy before being dismantled and shipped to Paris. Silver then oversaw the assembly and installation of the frame on-site at Notre-Dame de Paris. After completion of the nave in March 2024, Silver continued work on the cathedral, installing the oak roof deck on the nave and south transept.

Silver currently resides in France.

LANDSCAPE | Craig Bergmann Landscape Design, Lake Forest, IL, US

Craig Bergmann’s award-winning work has been featured in several books including Rosemary Verey’s The American Man’s Garden, Mary Riley Smith’s The Front Garden, Susan McClure’s Midwest Garden Design, and Page Dickey’s book Inside Out: Relating Garden to House, as well as in such periodicals as Garden Design (Golden Trowel Winner in 2007), House Beautiful, House & Garden, Traditional Home, Midwest Living, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Chicago Magazine, Forest & Bluff Magazine, and Chicago Tribune Magazine.

Bergmann and his own garden were featured on the PBS television series The Victory Garden in 1998 and on HGTV’s Gardener’s Journal. His own gardens and others of his design have been included on The Garden Conservancy Tours for many years. Bergmann is the editor of the book Midwestern Landscaping, a comprehensive and practical guide to gardening in USDA Climate Zone 5. He serves as an Honorary Board Member of the Elawa Farm Foundation, which he has graciously contributed to over the past decade. He has received numerous awards for his preservation installations.

Craig Bergmann’s landscape design business has been headquartered in Lake Forest since 2011. The coach house and two gatehouses were designed by the famous North Shore estate architect David Adler in 1917 for A. Watson Armour. Bergmann and interior designer Paul Klug have completely renovated two of the three buildings and reinvigorated the property with the garden installation. Keeping the original Armour Garden plan in mind, Bergmann used much of the plant material from the Country Garden display gardens and recycled historic materials to create similar border gardens with statuary. Beyond that he has re-imagined the entire two-and-a-half-acre property, installing additional garden rooms, a pool area with espalier apple trees, revitalizing the orchard with a dove cote, and restoring the motor court with borders containing Mrs. Armour’s original irises.

An animal lover, Craig is the proud owner of Pepper, Watson, and Cherry, three Norwich terriers who preside over the property and design studio.

STEWARDSHIP | New York Landmarks Conservancy, New York City, NY, US

The Landmarks Conservancy’s singular mission for more than 50 years has been the protection of New York’s built environment—from the iconic buildings that define the City’s spectacular skyline to the diverse neighborhoods where we live, work, worship, and play. The Conservancy’s visionary founders realized that landmarking alone might not always save a building. They established a group with the technical skills and programs to help the owners of historic buildings maintain their properties.

Early efforts focused on specific projects—finding new uses for the former Alexander Hamilton Custom House at Bowling Green, now a branch of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian; turning the giant former Federal Archive Building in the West Village into residential and commercial space; and restoring facades and porches on the unique Astor Row block in Harlem.

In more recent years, the Conservancy advocated for the preservation of buildings on the south side of Ellis Island, lent support to buildings damaged on 9/11 and after superstorms, and managed a $4 million preservation program for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone—the only program of its kind in the country—providing grants and no-interest loans to preserve Harlem religious and cultural landmarks. The Conservancy even saved the Picasso Curtain that hung in the former Four Seasons Restaurant, giving it to the New York Historical Society, where it is now featured.

Grants and loans of $62 million have mobilized more than $1 billion in some 2,000 renovation projects throughout the city and state, revitalizing communities, creating economic stimulus, and supporting local jobs, and the Conservancy advocates for sound preservation policies at all levels of government, fighting for land use laws and zoning that respects historic areas while allowing appropriate growth.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS HONOR | Clive Aslet, London, UK

Clive is the Publisher of Triglyph Books, which he founded with the photographer Dylan Thomas in 2019. Triglyph specialises in architectural books, often on living practitioners such as Hugh Petter, Michael Imber, Oliver Cope, Andrew Skurman and Larry Boerder. In May, Triglyph will publish his latest work, King Charles III: 40 Years of Architecture.

In 1977, Clive joined Country Life magazine to write about architecture. In 1993 he became Editor, a position he held for 13 years, before becoming Editor at Large. He opened the world’s eyes to the beauties of the Gilded Age in Britain and the US through pioneering books, beginning with The Last Country Houses (Yale University Press) in 1982.

Clive has written over 30 books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, many of them in support of classicism. These have included major works on Quinlan Terry, John Simpson and other classicists.

Since 2021, Clive has been a Visiting Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, where he helped to establish the Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture at Downing College. Earlier this year he launched a podcast, Your Place or Mine?, with Dr John Goodall, exploring and celebrating places and architecture. He served as a trustee for organisations such as the Lutyens Trust, INTBAU and Plantlife International, and was a founder of the Twentieth Century Society in 1979.

Over Clive’s 47 year career he has championed the cause of Classicism and the architects who continue its legacy to this day.

The 2025 Arthur Ross Award winners were selected by a jury that included Andrew Cogar (Chair), Elizabeth Graziolo, Siobhan Kelly, James McCrery, Donald Powers, Adrian Taylor, and Thomas Woltz. The event Co-Chairs of this year’s Arthur Ross Awards are Andrew Cogar, Melissa DelVecchio, and Bunny Williams.

Established in 1982 by Arthur Ross and Henry Hope Reed, the Awards recognize the achievements and contributions of architects, painters, sculptors, artisans, interior designers, landscape designers, educators, publishers, patrons, and others dedicated to preserving and advancing the classical tradition.

ICAA President Peter Lyden had this to say: “The remarkable body of work produced by this year’s winners has had a monumental positive impact on individuals, communities, and the built environment. From the creation of affordable, sustainable, and beautiful towns in the UK to the preservation of New York City’s historical landmarks for future generations; from inspired interiors that respond with eloquence to the surrounding architecture to beautiful landscapes steeped in craftsmanship and preservation and designed for longevity; and from skillfully hewn woodwork supporting the restored Notre Dame Cathedral to an esteemed career in writing, publishing, and education, sharing the story of classical and traditional architecture and design. This year’s honorees are a potent demonstration of the vitality and relevance of traditional design practices today.”

The 2025 Arthur Ross Awards celebration at Cipriani 42nd Street on May 12th will commence with cocktails at 6 PM. The Awards dinner and ceremony will follow at 7 PM, with an after party at 9 PM. The dress code for the event is black tie (floor length or cocktail dresses for ladies).

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