National Building Museum Names Robert A.M. Stern Winner of Vincent Scully Prize

In recognition of his unrivaled achievements as educator, scholar, author and architect, Robert A.M. Stern will be awarded the Vincent Scully Prize by the National Building Museum during a two-day celebration in November.

Stern, Dean of the Yale School of Architecture and the J.M. Hoppin Professor of Architecture, was named the Scully Prize laureate “for his years of teaching at Columbia and Yale Universities, his leadership as the dean of the Yale School of Architecture, and his seminal publications reflecting on the history of architecture in New York,” said Vincent Scully Prize Jury chairman David Schwarz. “As an educator and author, he helped create the revival of the shingle style and successfully promoted traditional town planning.”

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Scully Prize, which will be celebrated with a series of public and private events paying tribute to Vincent Scully and Stern’s legacies and achievement. The events will take place in Washington, D.C. on November 12–13.

The Vincent Scully Prize and endowment were established by the Washington, D.C.-based National Building Museum in 1999 in honor of the celebrated Yale scholar, who has been one of the country’s leading architectural historians and critics as well as teacher of ever-popular introductory courses on the history of art and history of architecture.

Recognizing exemplary practice, scholarship or criticism in architecture, historic preservation and urban design, the Scully prize is arguably the most important award in its field. Focusing on the breadth of ideas and scholarship that contributes to the creation of great buildings, the award is considered unique in that it is not primarily about individual projects.

Continuing a legacy of leadership and excellence in the field of architecture at Yale, Stern has been at the helm of the Yale School of Architecture since 1998. As founder and Senior Partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, he personally directs the design of each of his firm’s diverse projects, including the recently completed Comcast Center, a 57-story office building in Center City Philadelphia, and Fifteen Central Park West, a residential building in New York City. He is an indefatigable advocate of preservation, a champion in particular of modernist monuments that have fallen out of public favor. On campus, Stern has presided over the historic renovation of Paul Rudolph’s landmark Art and Architecture building. The building, which is part of a new arts facility at Yale, will be rededicated this November, the name officially changed to Paul Rudolph Hall.

Past recipients of the prize are authors, educators, scholars and practitioners in the field of architecture and urbanism including Vincent J. Scully, Jane Jacobs, Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, His Highness The Aga Khan, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Phyllis Lambert, Witold Rybczynski, and Richard Moe.

The National Building Museum, opened in 1985, is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to exploring and celebrating architecture, design, engineering, construction, and planning.