SMITHSONIAN’S COOPER-HEWITT, NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM ANNOUNCES SIXTH ANNUAL NATIONAL DESIGN AWARDS TO BE HELD ON OCT. 20, 2005
Paul Warwick Thompson, director of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, announced that the sixth annual National Design Awards, honoring the most outstanding contributions from the design world in 2005, will be held on Thursday, Oct. 20.
"As the nation's highest design honor, the National Design Awards help to communicate the value of design to a broad, general public," said Thompson. "By educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation and lasting achievement in design, the Awards serve to reconnect the museum to the founding vision of the Hewitt sisters."
Reflecting the ever-growing scope of design, the Awards program has expanded this year to include three new categories---Landscape Architecture, Interior Design and Design Mind---for a total of ten awards, including Lifetime Achievement, Corporate Achievement, Architecture, Communications, Product, Fashion and Design Patron.
In June, Cooper-Hewitt will announce the first winners, those of Lifetime Achievement, Corporate Achievement and Design Mind, as well as the three finalists for each of the other six Awards for Architecture, Communications, Landscape Architecture, Interior Design, Product and Fashion. The six Design Award winners and the Design Patron award recipients will be announced, and the Lifetime Achievement, Corporate Achievement and Design Mind honored, at the Oct. 20 gala, which will be held at Cooper-Hewitt's landmark headquarters on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The proceeds from the gala will benefit the museum and its exhibitions and public programs.
The names of the panel of nine distinguished jurors appointed by the museum to select the finalists and winners this June also were presented today. The nine jury members, each a leader in his or her respective field, bring diversity and expertise to this year's National Design Awards and to the vast arena of design.
Ron Arad is founder of Ron Arad Associates, an architecture and design practice in London. Born in Israel, Arad has designed furniture and products for the world's leading companies, including Alessi, Artemide, Cassina, FedEx-Germany, Kartell and Vitra, and has been commissioned for corporate, residential and institutional structures around the globe, including the New Tel Aviv Opera, Israel. Arad serves as professor of design product at the Royal College of Art in London; is a frequent lecturer at universities and design schools worldwide; and has been the subject of numerous museum retrospectives and the recipient of several prestigious design awards.
Andrea Cochran is principal and founder of Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture, in the Bay area of San Francisco. The firm's projects include private residential gardens, corporate headquarters, institutional and educational campuses, commercial facilities, urban housing, wineries, hotels and an art-museum sculpture garden. Her design work has garnered numerous awards and been widely published and recognized internationally. A leader in her local design community, she currently serves as a commissioner in civic design on the San Francisco Arts Commission and on the executive board for the Architecture and Design Forum at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Li Edelkoort is chairwoman of the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven and founder of the Edelkoort Group, one of the world's most renowned trend forecasters. Studying the links among art, fashion, design and consumer culture, the Edelkoort Group analyzes and reports on future trends in concepts, colors and materials in a wide range of sectors, from cosmetics to cars, telephones to public transportation, food and flowers to bricks and paper. Edelkoort has received continual recognition for her work in providing inspirational stimuli and fostering creative talent and was named one of the world's "25 Most Influential People in Fashion" by Time magazine in 2003.
David Rockwell is founder of the Rockwell Group, a New York-based architecture practice with more than 200 built projects, including set designs for film (most recently, the animated film Team America) and Broadway musicals (including Hairspray), designer hotels and dozens of restaurants. Rockwell studied architecture at Syracuse University and has been honored with Interiors magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Presidential Design Award for the Grand Central Terminal renovation, and Interior Design magazine's Hall of Fame. Rockwell serves as chairman of the board of the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS and is a board member of the Public Theater, the Big Apple Circus and City Meals on Wheels.
Jeff Speck is director of design for the National Endowment for the Arts and is responsible for all grant-making in the fields of planning, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, product design, graphic design and historic preservation. He also directs leadership initiatives that teach design skills to community leaders nationwide. Speck received a master's in architecture with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and holds a master's in art history. Prior to joining the NEA, Speck was director of town planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co., a leader in the international New Urbanism movement, which promotes alternatives to suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment.
Frank Stephenson, previously director of concept design and development for the Ferrari Group, Italy, was recently appointed director of design for Fiat and Lancia. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design with a degree in automotive design, Stephenson has worked for BMW Group, notably as chief designer of the MINI Cooper, and as a concept designer for General Motors and Ford. His designs have won numerous distinctions, including the 2003 North American Car of the Year Award, the 2003 Industrial Designers Society of America Gold Award, the 2004 Best Car in Show Award, Geneva, Italy and the 2004 Best Car in Show Award, Paris.
Nadja Swarovski, vice president of international communications at Swarovski, is the fifth generation of the Swarovskis to work for the family business. Based in London, she set up Swarovski's first international Creative Service Center and implemented a new marketing communications strategy for Swarovski crystals, which has brought the company name to the forefront of fashion and jewelry industries. Most recently, she has helped the company break new ground in the home decor/lifestyle arena with the revival of the crystal chandelier.
Michael Vanderbyl established Vanderbyl Design in San Francisco in 1973 as a multi-disciplinary firm with expertise in graphics, packaging, signage, interiors, showrooms, retail spaces, furniture, textiles and fashion apparel. He is dean of design at the California College of the Arts and has gained international prominence as a practitioner, educator, critic and advocate of design. Vanderbyl is president of the National American Institute of Graphic Arts and holds a position on the design advisory board and the architecture
and design accessions committee at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Michael Volkema, chairman of the board of Herman Miller Inc., directs the Herman Miller Creative Office, which is aimed at commercializing innovations for the built environment. Volkema advocates Herman Miller's enlightened environmental and business practices, employee ownership and design leadership. He serves as chairman of the board for Kids Hope USA and is a member of the Michigan Business Roundtable and Applebee's International board of directors.
The 2005 National Design Awards nominations were solicited from a committee of more than 800 leading designers, educators, journalists, cultural figures and corporate leaders from every state in the nation. Nominations for the following Awards will be reviewed by the jury.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will recognize the work of a distinguished individual who has made a profound and long-term contribution to the contemporary practice of design.
The Corporate Achievement Award will be bestowed on a corporation, organization or institution that uses design as a strategic tool of its mission and exhibits ingenuity and insight in helping to advance the relationship between design and quality of life in the United States.
Six Design Achievement Awards will be given to individuals or firms for exceptional and exemplary work in six areas:
• Architecture (commercial, public or residential architectural design)
• Communications (graphic design, multimedia design)
• Landscape Architecture* (urban planning, parks, gardens)
• Interior Design* (domestic, corporate, cultural and commercial interiors)
• Product (consumer goods, technology, home and office furnishings)
• Fashion (clothing, footwear and accessories)
*new awards
In addition, The Design Mind Award* will recognize a visionary individual who has affected a paradigm shift in design thinking or practice through writing, research and scholarship.
The Design Patron Award will recognize an individual's outstanding support, patronage and commission of design within the business and civic sectors. Previous recipients of the award, launched in 2001, have included national retail-store executives, such as Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus and Gordon Segal of Crate & Barrel, the hotelier André Balazs and, most recently, Amanda Burden, chair of the NYC Planning Commission and director of the Department of City Planning. Unlike the other Awards, the recipient of this award is chosen by the museum's director each year.
First launched at the White House in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the annual Awards program celebrates design in various disciplines as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation and lasting achievement.
The National Design Awards is one of the few programs of its kind structured to continue to benefit the nation long after the awards ceremony and gala. An education program will be announced this summer in conjunction with the awards by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's award-winning Education Department and includes educational materials as well as a series of public programs, lectures, roundtables and workshops based on the vision and work of the National Design Award winners.
For more information about the dinner, the awards program and selection process, please contact Jodi Imburgia at (212) 849-8304 or visit the National Design Awards Web site at www.nationaldesignawards.org.
The National Design Awards are made possible by the generous support of COACH
Exclusive media sponsor is House & Garden
Trophies are provided by Saint-Gobain Advanced Ceramics
About Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historical and contemporary design. Design shapes our objects, environments and communications, making them more desirable, functional and accessible. The museum celebrates the nature of design and explores its impact on the quality of our lives.
Cooper-Hewitt is located at 2 East 91st Street at Fifth Avenue in New York City. Hours: Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Public transit routes include the Lexington Avenue 4, 5 and 6 subways (86th or 96th Street stations) and the Fifth and Madison Avenue buses. General admission, $10; senior citizens and students over age 12, $7. Cooper-Hewitt members and children under age 12 are admitted free. For further information, please call 212.849.8400 or visit www.cooperhewitt.org. The museum is fully accessible.
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