by Center for Architecture
The Center for Architecture, in partnership with AIA New York, is proud to announce the 2023 recipients of the Arnold W. Brunner Grant.
The Arnold W. Brunner Grant is awarded to mid-career architects for advanced study in any area of architectural investigation that contributes to the knowledge, teaching, or practice of the art and science of architecture. AIANY and the Center for Architecture’s joint Scholarship Committee assesses projects based on their engagement with contemporary local and global architectural issues and the utility of the research project’s end product.
AIANY and the Center for Architecture award scholarships and grant awards throughout the year for architectural students, architectural student journals, and practicing architects. Visit our website for more information on upcoming grants and scholarships deadlines.
2023 RECIPIENTS
Cynthia Burgos López
Project: “Restoration and Conservation of Crash Boat Beach for the Villa del Ojo Fishermen’s Association”
Award: $15,000
In 2017, Hurricane Maria destroyed the fishermen village located in Crash Boat Beach in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Five years later, the need to rebuild and mitigate issues associated with climate change is an urgent priority for a fishing community in the face of displacement. This research aims to understand the complexities of adaptation and mitigation through an architecture and ecosystem-based approach that tests the proposed master plan strategies through a quantitative model focused on hydrologic predictions, providing the community with the tools to validate and/or modify the proposed strategies.
Cynthia Burgos Lopez is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico and holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from Polytechnic University, San Juan. She is currently a PhD student of Environmental Management at Ana G. Méndez University and is Co-founder and Executive Director of La Maraña.
Emmanuel Oni
Project: “Beyond Memorial”
Award: $10,000
“Beyond Memorial” is a design, spatial, and healing justice response to the invisible yet palpable community scars left in spaces after gun violence. Through workshops with artists, community partners, and healers, residents of these communities will co-create alternative healing spaces that also artfully promote public safety. Collective envisioning through public engagement will produce innovative forms of commemoration that can extend into taking action to address root causes of community trauma and serve as a model for other public spaces of loss across the city.
Emmanuel Oni is a graduate of the University of Houston and earned a Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Design, The New School. He is currently a freelance community artist, visualizer, and designer focused on creative services for artists, non-profits, and design firms.
Danielle Willkens
Project: “Tools and Frameworks for Community-Based Preservation Technology on Atlanta’s Westside”
Award: $15,000
This research, visualization, and advocacy project will focus on two neighborhoods on Atlanta’s westside, at the fulcrum of pivotal development and change after decades of underinvestment. English Avenue and Pittsburgh have rich histories and built legacies, and are home to dynamic community groups championing positive change and fighting displacement. For this project, LiDAR, UAV (e.g., drones), and HABS-guided methods will capture and preserve site history with unprecedented levels of detail, creating an online platform for site documentation, archival research, historical narrative, and oral histories, delivering new ways of interacting with the neighborhoods that foreground community perspectives and preservation efforts.
Danielle Willkens holds a PhD in architectural history and theory from UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture, a M.Phil from the University of Cambridge, a Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design, and a M.Arch and BS from the University of Virginia. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture and Co-founder of the digital documentation and visualization think tank, Thesia4D.
2023 grants and scholarships were awarded by the 2023 Scholarship Committee:
Andrea D. Lamberti, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Rafael Viñoly Architects
Nina Cooke-John, AIA, Studio Cooke John
Koray Duman, AIA, LEED AP, BÜRO KORAY DUMAN
Peter Robinson, Cornell University
Jennifer Sage, FAIA, LEED AP, Sage and Coombe Architects
Hilary M. Sample, FAIA, MOS Architects
Eunjeong Seong, Pratt University
Sharon E. Sutton, PhD, FAIA, University of Washington
Allison Tomlinson, Gensler
Richard C. Yancey, FAIA, LEED AP, NCARB, the Building Energy Exchange