An Evening with the 2022 Connecticut Architecture Foundation Distinguished Leadership Award Recipient
(New Haven, Ocotber 18, 2022 ) This year, the Connecticut Architecture Foundation honored Dr. Theodore Prudon, FAIA, with the 2022 Distinguished Leadership Award. Dr. Prudon is a professor at Columbia University and leading expert on the preservation of Modern architecture. He founded the first US Chapter of Docomomo 25 years ago and has just stepped down as its President. Docomomo, whose name is derived from DOcumentation and COnservation MOdern MOvement, is the leading international organization dedicated to the preservation of Modern architecture, landscapes, and design. It envisions “a world where people value modern heritage and use it to shape vibrant cities.”
New Haven is home to a wide variety of Modern architectural masterworks, from Eero Saarinen’s Ingalls Hockey Rink; Louis Kahn’s Center for British Art and Yale Art Gallery; Paul Rudolph’s Yale School of Architecture; Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo’s Knights of Columbus Building; Gordon Bunshaft’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library; to Marcel Breuer / Robert Gatje’s Armstrong Rubber Company Building, now the Hotel Marcel.
Here in New Haven, the Armstrong Rubber (later Pirelli Tire) building designed by Breuer in 1967 has been recently rehabilitated and transformed by Becker + Becker into a sustainable, unique hotel. The hotel was just awarded a 2022 Modernism in America Award of Excellence by Docomomo.
The evening began with a reception in the Hotel Marcel’s Sunken Lounge, followed by dinner in the Forum and Function Room. After dinner, Dr. Prudon and CAF Board Member and University of Hartford professor Michael Crosbie, PhD, FAIA, discussed the preservation of Modern buildings, educating and inspiring all to appreciate and care for our modern surroundings.
They discussed the lack of appreciation for Modernism, awareness of Docomomo, what buildings should be preserved, challenges to preserving Modern structures, pressing preservation issues, such as pressure from the real estate industry for valuable sites.
New Haven was cited as a mecca with its wealth of Modern architecture here that has been saved, restored, and preserved. Modernism has never been a popular movement with the general public, but projects like Hotel Marcel can help to change that. Docomomo’s next annual National Symposium will be in New Haven [June 21-24, 2023], recognizing that fact.
The Connecticut Architecture Foundation grants scholarships to students pursuing degrees in an Architectural Program at a Connecticut accredited university as well as Connecticut residents pursuing a degree at other accredited universities.
The Connecticut Architecture Foundation was established in 1978 by the Connecticut Society of Architects (now AIA Connecticut) as an independent organization to raise and distribute funds. In the past 44 years, the CAF has awarded over $600,000 in scholarships to architecture students and for grants supporting academic activities. This annual awards dinner benefits our scholarship and grant programs.
Please visit the Connecticut Architecture Foundation at www.cafct.org
The CAF Board of Directors thanks AIA Connecticut and our sponsors for their generosity in support of the 2022 Distinguished Leadership Awards Dinner, which funds CAF scholarships and grants.
Gala Event Sponsor: Consigli Construction Co.; Dinner Sponsor: Pickard Chilton Architects; Reception Sponsors: SLAM and Whiting Turner; Dessert Sponsor: JCJ Architecture; and Student Sponsor: TSKP Studio
Foundation Sponsors: Amenta Emma Architects; BVH Integrated Services; Dean Sakamoto; Gilbane Inc; Group C Inc.; Interscape Commercial Environments; Kohler Ronan Consulting Engineers; Kronenberger & Sons Restoration, Inc.; Langan; Michael & Sharon Crosbie; Newman Architects; Pella; Perkins Eastman; Pirie Associates; Randall Anway; Roche Modern; RZ Design Associates; Stephanie Degen-Monroe; and TLB Architecture.
Table Sponsors: Svigals + Partners; JP Franzen Associates Architects; and the University of Hartford College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture.