Honoring Jane Jacobs
Peggy Shepard, Alexie Torres-Fleming
Awarded 2008 Jane Jacobs Medals
May 5, 2008
Peggy Shepard, the executive director and co-founder of West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT), is cited for Lifetime Leadership. Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YMPJ) and other South Bronx organizations, is recognized for New Ideas and Activism. The Medals will be awarded on September 8th at the Morgan Library. more
2007 Jane Jacobs Medal Winners
Barry Benepe Cited for Lifetime Leadership;
Omar Freilla for New Ideas and Activism
June 25, 2007
Barry Benepe, 79, is the co-founder of Greenmarket, the largest U.S. farmer’s market program with markets in over 30 neighborhoods across New York City. Omar Freilla founded Green Worker Cooperatives. One goal is to turn the 10,000 tons of construction waste that ends up in waste transfer stations in the Bronx each year, into local 'green collar' jobs. more | Press release | coverage
Jane Jacobs Discussions on YouTube
November 5, 2007
Excerpts from recent Jane Jacobs program discussions are available on YouTube. Is New York Losing Its Soul? addresses the loss of neighborhoods and diversity. Jane Jacobs and An Activist Press connects virtual with actual community-building. A Civic Activist Boot Camp examines civic protest. Also offered are The Oversuccessful City, Universities and Their Neighbors and others. more
Awarded 2008 Jane Jacobs Medals
May 5, 2008
Peggy Shepard, the executive director and co-founder of West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT), is cited for Lifetime Leadership. Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YMPJ) and other South Bronx organizations, is recognized for New Ideas and Activism. The Medals will be awarded on September 8th at the Morgan Library. more2007 Jane Jacobs Medal Winners
Barry Benepe Cited for Lifetime Leadership;
Omar Freilla for New Ideas and Activism
June 25, 2007
Barry Benepe, 79, is the co-founder of Greenmarket, the largest U.S. farmer’s market program with markets in over 30 neighborhoods across New York City. Omar Freilla founded Green Worker Cooperatives. One goal is to turn the 10,000 tons of construction waste that ends up in waste transfer stations in the Bronx each year, into local 'green collar' jobs. more | Press release | coverageJane Jacobs Discussions on YouTube
November 5, 2007
Excerpts from recent Jane Jacobs program discussions are available on YouTube. Is New York Losing Its Soul? addresses the loss of neighborhoods and diversity. Jane Jacobs and An Activist Press connects virtual with actual community-building. A Civic Activist Boot Camp examines civic protest. Also offered are The Oversuccessful City, Universities and Their Neighbors and others. more
From left: Attorney Raymond Rubinow, Jane Jacobs, art critic Aline Bernstein Saarinen, architect Philip Johnson; AGBANY stands for the Action Group for Better Architecture in New York
In the mid 1950s, the Foundation launched an Urban Design Studies program that is widely credited for the emergence of the new discipline of urban design and post-war urban theory. New York City was a laboratory for the RF during this era and one of its seminal grants was to a relatively unknown writer named Jane Jacobs, for the research and writing of the urban classic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
The Jane Jacobs MedalTo reaffirm the Foundation’s commitment to New York City and to honor the work of the visionary urbanist Jane Jacobs, who died in 2006, the Foundation established an annual Jane Jacobs Medal in New York in 2007 to recognize visionary work in building a more diverse, dynamic and equitable city through creative uses of the urban environment. Medals are awarded to two living persons whose accomplishments represent Jacobsean principles and practices in action in New York City. The selection of the winners and allocation of the prize money--totaling $200,000--will ultimately be decided by the members of a Medal Selection Jury. The first award recognizes leadership and lifetime contribution. The second award recognizes new ideas and activism. Together the medallists represent the creativity, innovation and dynamism of New York City.
We make reference to Jacobsean principles, which encompass the following values and ideas:
- Make New York City a place of hope and expectation that attracts new people and new ideas
- Challenge traditional assumptions and conventional thinking
- Promote dynamism, density and diversity
- Generate new principles for the way we think about development and preservation in New York City
- Take a common sense approach to complex problems
- Provide leadership in solving common problems
- Respect neighborhood knowledge
- Generate creative use of the urban environment
Jane Jacobs & the Future of New York: An ExhibitionSeptember 12, 2007
The Municipal Art Society of New York offers an interactive exhibit honoring Jane Jacobs at the Urban Center galleries in Manhattan. Order BLOCK BY BLOCK, a companion anthology. more
The 2007 Jane Jacobs Medal wwas administered by the Municipal Art Society (MAS). MAS President Kent Barwick said, “I can’t imagine a better time to celebrate and explore the life and work of a woman who challenged the way we think about, preserve, and develop New York City. As the debate about the growth and the development of the City continues, I keep thinking to myself: ‘What would Jane say?’”
Rockefeller Foundation Announces Award to Honor Activist, Author & Urbanist Jane Jacobs
February 12, 2007;
Press release'I first came across her at a conference a few years ago: she there made a brief address so pointed and challenging and witty, so merciless to the accepted clichés and so packed with fresh ideas that I felt like cheering...' Lewis Mumford on Jane Jacobs, 1958
The 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal Jury