2019 Arthur Ross Award For Community Design, Civic Design, AND City Planning
2019 Arthur Ross Award Acceptance Speech
by Paul Ostergaard, FAIA, AoU
Eric and I are honored to receive this award on behalf of everyone at Urban Design Associates. We thank the ICCA selection committee for this wonderful recognition.
UDA was founded in 1964 by David Lewis and Ray Gindroz coming out of the Department of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University. David is in his 90s and still sculpting, painting and writing. Ray and his wife, Marilyn are on their way to southern France to meet up with students from Hampton University. Another one of our emeritus partners, Don Carter, heads up the Remaking Cities Institute at CMU. Eric and I have great partners who are unable to be here tonight: Barry Long, Rob Robinson, Megan O’Hara, Steve Auterman, David Csont, and Gail Armstrong, as well as a very talented and dedicated staff.
Our form of classicism is the small single-family house, well designed, usually modest, and inspired by local traditional architectural patterns that people love. As a single house, it may not have much of an impact, but when several hundred are built in one place organized by a beautiful arrangement of streets and blocks and parks, the transformation can be dramatic. This large infusion of the classical tradition is an important strategy in the regeneration of our cities.
The name of our firm reflects our fascination with the city and the need for teamwork to effect change. All who work with us on an urban project are associates in urban design. Our ideas are inspired by citizens who work side by side with us. We collaborate with highly skilled design specialists and market experts on virtually every one of our urban design projects. A range of talented developers, municipalities, foundations, and authorities have turned those designs into reality. This great recognition is as much for them as it is for our firm.
Thank you again for this honor.
2019 Arthur Ross Award Winners - Russell Windham, Anthony Baus, Bill Sullivan, Julian Fellows, Professor James Stevens Curl, Paul Ostergaard, Eric Osth and Gil Schafer III attend 38th Annual Arthur Ross Awards at The University Club on May 6, 2019 in New York.
