{"141311":{"#nid":"141311","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Architecture Alumni Win Smithsonian\u0027s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn Washington, D.C. this week, Georgia Tech School of Architecture alumni Mack Scogin (1967) and Merrill Elam (1971) accepted the top prize for Architecture in the Smithsonian\u2019s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards. One of the nation\u2019s most prestigious awards in design, the annual program celebrates design in various disciplines as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI have known and experienced the architecture of Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam for more than 35 years. It has evolved in its complexity and intricacy, but from the earliest days theirs was and remains a delicate and beautiful spatial poetry, utterly original and owing a debt to none,\u201d said Alan Balfour, dean of the Georgia Tech College of Architecture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFounded in 1984, their Atlanta-based firm, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, has won international acclaim for work that ranges from a sleek factory for Herman Miller to the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center for Wellesley College and commercial office space for Tishman Speyer Properties. The firm\u2019s diverse body of work is uniquely characterized by profound rigor tempered by childlike innocence. It has been recognized with numerous awards and publications and has been shown at museums such as The Museum of Modern Art and The Walker Art Center.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe are very, very proud to be able to count Mack and Merrill among the alumni of our School,\u201d said George Johnston, chair of the School of Architecture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/cooperhewitt.photoshelter.com\/gallery-slideshow\/G0000GFAQHseHbgY\/?start=\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EView a slideshow of their work.\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/msmearch.com\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EVisit their website.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe National Design Awards were conceived by the Smithsonian\u2019s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor lasting achievement in American design. The Awards are bestowed in recognition of excellence, innovation and enhancement of the quality of life. It is one of the few programs of its kind structured to continue to benefit the nation long after the awards ceremony and gala.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBalfour continued, \u201cThe significance of their work derives not from being polemical but from the intersection of two imaginations continually exploring the infinite possibilities in defining space and materials, and these are distinctly American imaginations. Such national recognition is exactly appropriate to the strength of their work.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe architects also participated in a Teen Design Fair hosted by the museum as part of the awards celebration. Local teens from Washington and New York City chatted with the honorees about their careers and the impact of design.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe \u003Cem\u003EWashington Post\u003C\/em\u003E reported Elam\u2019s comments to the teens: \u201cThere\u2019s no reason that American design shouldn\u2019t be the most inventive. We have the most freedom of any place on the face of the earth, and our design work should just reflect that on and on and on.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOther honorees included:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003ELifetime Achievement: Richard Saul Wurman, for his profound and long-term contribution to the contemporary practice of design. Wurman created and chaired the TED, TEDMED and eg conferences in 1984\u20132002, 1995\u20132010 and 2006, respectively.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EDesign Mind Award: Janine Benyus, a biologist and innovation consultant working to use biomimicry, looking to nature to create sustainable designs.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EDesign Patron: Red Burns, an arts professor and chief collaborations officer for the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, for her innovations in communications technology.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ECommunication Design: Rebeca Mendes, a professor in media arts at the University of California, Los Angeles.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EInteraction Design: Evan Roth, an artist who visualizes and records often unseen moments in public spaces and collaborated with Jay-Z on the first open-source rap video.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EInterior Design: Clive Wilkinson Architects, a Los Angeles-based firm whose clients have included Google, Disney and 20th Century Fox.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ELandscape Architecture: Stoss Landscape Urbanism, a Boston studio that works in both landscape design and urban planning.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EProduct Design: Scott Wilson, founder of the Chicago-based studio Minimal that collaborated with Microsoft to design Kinect for Xbox 360 and who created TikTok watches for the iPod Nano.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Awards are bestowed in recognition of excellence, innovation and enhancement of the quality of life.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27213","created_gmt":"2012-07-19 13:41:12","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:33","author":"Teri Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-07-19T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-07-19T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"140601":{"id":"140601","type":"image","title":"Merrill Elam and Mack Scogin","body":null,"created":"1449178710","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:38:30","changed":"1475894771","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:11","alt":"Merrill Elam and Mack Scogin","file":{"fid":"194921","name":"scogin_elam.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/scogin_elam_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/scogin_elam_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":80826,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/scogin_elam_0.jpg?itok=MZBm94O8"}}},"media_ids":["140601"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.cooperhewitt.org\/","title":"Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/travel\/michelle-obama-smithsonian-honor-top-creative-minds-with-national-design-awards\/2012\/07\/13\/gJQAUhRdiW_story.html","title":"Washington Post article"}],"groups":[{"id":"1221","name":"College of Design"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"137","name":"Architecture"}],"keywords":[{"id":"926","name":"College of Architecture"},{"id":"167177","name":"School of Architecture"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:teri.nagel@coa.gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ETeri Nagel\u003C\/a\u003E, Georgia Tech College of Architecture\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}