And the Scully goes to . . .

The Vincent Scully Prize is awarded each year by the National Building Museum to recognize “exemplary practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation, or urban design.”  It’s a big deal in this field, and my favorite past winners are the immortal Jane Jacobs and HRH the Prince of Wales, who gave a stirring acceptance speech about the importance of the built environment to the natural environment, including climate change.    

This year’s winner is Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and a subject-in-passing of one of my earlier posts.  As I said there, I’m a huge fan of Dick’s work.  He was one of the very first leaders of the nonprofit sector to embrace the smart growth vision, understanding the damage that sprawl can do in sapping the life out of traditional communities and the role that historic neighborhoods can play in providing smarter alternatives.  It was also Dick who hosted the early talks among those of us interested in the topic in the mid-1990s that morphed into the national coalition Smart Growth America.  He’s been great for the Trust and great for our cause, and he’s a nice guy, too.

By the way, if you’ve never been to the National Building Museum, take a look sometime.  In my humble opinion it’s the grandest indoor space in Washington (or at least competes with Washington National Cathedral and Union Station for that honor), housed in a building originally constructed to dispense pensions to Civil War veterans.  The museum hosts a smart growth lecture series and has staged a number of exhibits on how to grow and build green.  They also have the best museum shop in town.