Prestigious Jury Announced for 2014 Charter Awards

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Today, jury chair Jeff Speck revealed an impressive list of urbanists that have agreed to judge the 2014 CNU Charter Awards, the global award for excellence in urban design. Speck handpicked an especially prominent jury to convene in January and review hundreds of entries from architecture, planning and design firms around the world (as well as student submissions).

The full list of jurors is as follows (in alphabetical order):

• Ronald E. Bogle, President & CEO of the American Architectural Foundation
• Will Bruder, FAIA, President and Lead Design Architect at Will Bruder Architects
• Adele Chatfield-Taylor, President & CEO of the American Academy in Rome (pictured, right)
• Manny Diaz, Mayor of Miami 2001-2009, Partner at Lydecker Diaz, LLP
• Rob Krier, Architect and Sculptor, KK Urbanism
• Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Founder and Principal, Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company
• Michaele Pride, Professor of Architecture at the University of New Mexico
• Brent Toderian, city planner and urbanist, Toderian UrbanWORKS 

Plater-Zyberk, one of the original founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Dean Emeritus of the Department of Architecture at the University of Miami and Principal at DPZ Associates, was a no-brainer: Speck worked under her at DPZ for a decade, and calls her a mentor. Air-lifting Rob Krier in from his home base in Berlin was a coup, as was securing the participation of Chatfield-Taylor, who is much more accustomed to running juries than serving on them. Perhaps the wild card of the bunch is Will Bruder, an iconoclastic Arizona-based architect who is known for his modernist masterpieces, but who has impressed Speck with his "commitment to the city-making principles put forth in the Charter of the New Urbanism."

Speck made the announcement by video (above)  from Perth, Australia, where he was speaking at the State Theater of Western Australia. "My choices were entirely selfish; I assembled a jury of the people I'd most like to sit with and debate the finer points of urban design and architecture," said Speck.

One significant change for 2014 is an expanded list of categories for submissions, inspired by Speck and honed with CNU staff and other noted experts. New categories include "Best Infill," "Best Tactical Intervention" and "Best Planning Tool or Process." "I wanted to expand the scope of the awards to recognize the innovation happening right now in our field," said Speck. The full list can be found at:

http://cnuawards2014.tumblr.com/

The 2014 Charter Awards will be accepting submissions as of November 8th, 2013 and will close January 8th, 2014.