In Celebration of Jane Jacobs
by Sam Roberts
The New York Times
June 25, 2007
In 1958, a promising but obscure writer for an architectural magazine applied to the Rockefeller Foundation for a research grant.
“Most city planning and rebuilding today is based, fundamentally, on rejection of the city,” she wrote. “I am convinced that any good that is going to come of planning for the city is going to have to foster the city’s diversity instead of obstructing it.”
The grant was approved, and ultimately grew to $18,000. The research helped produce Jane Jacobs’s landmark book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.”
Nearly a half-century later, the Rockefeller Foundation is inaugurating the Jane Jacobs Medals, accompanied by a $100,000 prize.
Barry Benepe, the 79-year-old founder of Greenmarket, will receive the first medal for “lifetime leadership.” Omar Freilla, the 33-year-old founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the Bronx, was named the winner of the first medal for “new ideas and activism.”
The medals, voted by a 12-member jury from hundreds of entries, will be presented in September in conjunction with the opening by the Municipal Art Society of an exhibit titled “Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York.”
“We’re experiencing in New York the kind of civic conversation Jane would have loved,” said Judith Rodin, the Rockefeller Foundation’s president.
Miss Jacobs, who championed density, dynamism and diversity in America’s cities, died last year at the age of 89. The Rockefeller Foundation awards will be given in her name annually.
The celebration of her life and legacy follows months of retrospection about her nemesis, Robert Moses, in a new book and in exhibitions that ended last month at the Museum of the City of New York and the Queens Museum of Art.
Mr. Benepe, an architect, planner and bicyclist whose son Adrian is the city’s parks commissioner, founded Greenmarket in 1975. In more than 30 neighborhoods, the organization has demonstrated how temporary farmers’ markets can revitalize empty lots and vacant parks.
Mr. Benepe, who first met Miss Jacobs at a demonstration in City Hall Park, hailed her “microcosmic” view of the city. He said he intends to share a portion of his prize money with other nonprofit groups.
Mr. Freilla, who was born in the South Bronx and returned there after earning a master’s degree in environmental science, founded Green Worker Cooperatives in 2003.
In keeping with Miss Jacobs’s vision, he said, one of the group’s goals was to open a center in the Bronx to transform construction waste “to create a new alternative economy that is community based, empowers workers and is green.” Workers would salvage used and surplus materials from demolition and construction sites for reuse.
Mr. Freilla is donating his prize money to the Green Worker Cooperatives, which has now raised all but $75,000 of its $900,000 goal for the center.
Describing its project on Miss Jacobs, the Municipal Art Society said that in contrast to the 1950s, recent development in the city has been incremental “but almost as powerful in the aggregate.”
“The texture of the city — the tangible and intangible components that create its character, the elements that comprise its soul — is eroding under a steady stream of luxury condominiums and national chain stores,” the society said.
“As the debate about the growth and the development of the city continues,” said Kent Barwick, the society’s president, “I keep thinking to myself: ‘What would Jane say?’ ”
The New York Times
June 25, 2007
In 1958, a promising but obscure writer for an architectural magazine applied to the Rockefeller Foundation for a research grant.
“Most city planning and rebuilding today is based, fundamentally, on rejection of the city,” she wrote. “I am convinced that any good that is going to come of planning for the city is going to have to foster the city’s diversity instead of obstructing it.”
The grant was approved, and ultimately grew to $18,000. The research helped produce Jane Jacobs’s landmark book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.”
Nearly a half-century later, the Rockefeller Foundation is inaugurating the Jane Jacobs Medals, accompanied by a $100,000 prize.
Barry Benepe, the 79-year-old founder of Greenmarket, will receive the first medal for “lifetime leadership.” Omar Freilla, the 33-year-old founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the Bronx, was named the winner of the first medal for “new ideas and activism.”
The medals, voted by a 12-member jury from hundreds of entries, will be presented in September in conjunction with the opening by the Municipal Art Society of an exhibit titled “Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York.”
“We’re experiencing in New York the kind of civic conversation Jane would have loved,” said Judith Rodin, the Rockefeller Foundation’s president.
Miss Jacobs, who championed density, dynamism and diversity in America’s cities, died last year at the age of 89. The Rockefeller Foundation awards will be given in her name annually.
The celebration of her life and legacy follows months of retrospection about her nemesis, Robert Moses, in a new book and in exhibitions that ended last month at the Museum of the City of New York and the Queens Museum of Art.
Mr. Benepe, an architect, planner and bicyclist whose son Adrian is the city’s parks commissioner, founded Greenmarket in 1975. In more than 30 neighborhoods, the organization has demonstrated how temporary farmers’ markets can revitalize empty lots and vacant parks.
Mr. Benepe, who first met Miss Jacobs at a demonstration in City Hall Park, hailed her “microcosmic” view of the city. He said he intends to share a portion of his prize money with other nonprofit groups.
Mr. Freilla, who was born in the South Bronx and returned there after earning a master’s degree in environmental science, founded Green Worker Cooperatives in 2003.
In keeping with Miss Jacobs’s vision, he said, one of the group’s goals was to open a center in the Bronx to transform construction waste “to create a new alternative economy that is community based, empowers workers and is green.” Workers would salvage used and surplus materials from demolition and construction sites for reuse.
Mr. Freilla is donating his prize money to the Green Worker Cooperatives, which has now raised all but $75,000 of its $900,000 goal for the center.
Describing its project on Miss Jacobs, the Municipal Art Society said that in contrast to the 1950s, recent development in the city has been incremental “but almost as powerful in the aggregate.”
“The texture of the city — the tangible and intangible components that create its character, the elements that comprise its soul — is eroding under a steady stream of luxury condominiums and national chain stores,” the society said.
“As the debate about the growth and the development of the city continues,” said Kent Barwick, the society’s president, “I keep thinking to myself: ‘What would Jane say?’ ”
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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