HISTORY OF THE BERKELEY PRIZE

In 1999, the inaugural theme, "The Architect Meets the Nursing Home," presented as a two-part design competition, called for architectural ideas by which the environment of the generic American nursing home might be improved in accommodating residents, staff, and visitors. The competition involved five weeks of site studies and a five-day design problem. Undergraduate students at Berkeley and the California College of Arts and Crafts San Francisco, participated. The jury was comprised of architects and social workers involved in the design and management of elderly care facilities.

In 2000, the competition called for an essay and posed the question "What role can architecture play as a socially responsive endeavor in the future? Discuss in light of your examination of architectural history, theory and your studio design experience."

Professor Stanford Anderson, Head, MIT Department of Architecture, Benjamin Clavan AIA, Architect, West Hollywood, Calif., and Professor Diane Ghirardo, School of Architecture, USC selected the winning entries. Sponsors at the participating schools included: Professors Leslie Van Duzer and Nan Ellin (ASU), Adjunct Professor Lisa Findley (CCAC), Professor Sandra Miller (California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo), Professor Felecia Davis (Cornell University), Professor Bill Hubbard (MIT), Professor E.G. Daves Rossell (SCAD), Professor Achva Stein (USC), and Professor C. Greig Crysler and Undergraduate Dean W. Mike Martin (Berkeley). These sponsors were joined by Lynne Elizabeth, editor-in-chief New Village Journal, a publication of Architects, Designers, Planners for Social Responsibility. Winning essays by students from Arizona State University and Cornell are to be published in the December 2000 issue of Crit, the journal of the American Institute of Architecture Students.