2003 Charter Awards winners announced

Congress for the New Urbanism celebrates exemplary urbanism. Whether it’s a new block of Berlin, Germany, a regional plan for the San Francisco Bay Area, or a freeway demolition in Milwaukee, this year’s Charter Award winners have something in common: They are the year’s best examples of New Urbanism. Over the weekend of April 5 and 6, the jurors deliberated for two full days on the 169 entries from over 100 firms. Jurors held the projects to high standards, ensuring that the winners would make the best exemplars of the state of the art in New Urbanism. the best in the field The annual awards program celebrates the best in New Urbanism. Unlike most architecture and planning awards, the Charter Awards recognize excellence at all scales of urban design, from the building to the region. The Charter Awards jury considers how a building fits into its neighborhood, how a neighborhood fits into its region, and how well a region is being planned. Success in the awards program comes from complying with the principles of New Urbanism as described in the Charter of the New Urbanism (on-line at www.cnu.org). The winning entries all concentrate on different ways to improve their cities, towns, and regions. Some projects comprise individual buildings or small groups of buildings, such as Soleil Court, a 24-unit development on a single block in San Diego. Others are at the scale of the neighborhood, district, and corridor, such as a plaza revitalization in a New Mexico village, or the neighborhood renewal plan for the area around Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore. The broadest projects are for entire regions, such as interjurisdictional work to revive historic mill towns in Massachusetts. Juror John Torti said the jury was impressed with how New Urbanism has infused the design professions. “The average submission,” he said, “Is orders of magnitude better than 95 percent of what is getting built today.” The award winners, therefore, are the best of an already excellent group. The jury reflected a very experienced, international group of urbanists. The jury chair, San Francisco-based architect and urban designer Daniel Solomon, has been widely recognized for his work on infill development. His awards include two Charter Awards in 2002. Leaders from outside the country were Dr. Hans Stimmann, director of urban planning for Berlin, Germany, and Larry Beasley, co-director of planning for Vancouver, British Columbia. Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones of the Georgia Technical University and Professor Robert Fishman of the University of Michigan provided the academic perspective. Author, consultant, and founding executive director of the Congress for the New Urbanism Peter Katz and Maryland-based architect Torti of Torti-Gallas & Partners/CHK rounded out the jury. The winners will be celebrated at an awards luncheon June 21, 2002, as part of the Eleventh Congress for the New Urbanism in Washington, D.C.