Charter Awards calls for submissions

New award highlights second generation of the New Urbanism. Attention architects, developers, and planners: CNU's inaugural Charter Awards want your best work. With its distinguished jury, the award represents CNU's attempt to “raise the bar” on design in the New Urbanism. Unlike 1999's Catherine Brown Awards, The Charter Awards are specifically focused on how well projects fulfill the Charter of the New Urbanism. The contest is open to projects at any scale, be it region, neighborhood, block, or building. With its focus on urbanism, the Charter Awards will be dramatically different from most architecture awards. Rather than looking at buildings in a vacuum, the Charter Awards will recognize buildings and area plans for their ability to enhance their environment and improve the human experience. The Charter Awards jury consists of seven distinguished men and women. CNU board member and long-time urban designer Ray Gindroz is chair of the jury. He will work with CNU board members Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, cofounder of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., and Harvey Gantt, former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. The remaining jurors are Robert Campbell, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Boston Globe; former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros; Laurie Olin of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard; and Anne Vernez Moudon, director of the Urban Design program at the University of Washington. “The principles of CNU’s Charter are the core values of good urbanism,” Gindroz says. “They can be applied by all designers, irrespective of style or architectural idiom. The Charter Awards program will set the standard for good urbanism. It will also expand our understanding of how these principles can create livable communities, both in existing cities and in new development.” CNU executive director Shelley Poticha adds, “Many architects have marveled at the achievements of Seaside and Kentlands. This award will show the world that there are now many more projects, in the cities as well as in the greenfields, that reduce urban sprawl while demonstrating excellence in urban design.” Architecture and planning firms interested in submitting their work to the Charter Awards should contact CNU at (415) 495-2255 or cnuinfo@cnu.org. Interested firms must request entry materials by Nov. 1; final submissions are due December 15.