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City of Gary and Notre Dame’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative announce vision and action plan for downtown Gary

2025-05-27T12:00:00-04:00

An artist's rendering of downtown Gary, including the historic City Methodist Church, which is featured in the 91��Ƶ of Architecture's final report.

The City of Gary and the University of Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative announced a “Vision and Action Plan” for downtown Gary during a news conference Tuesday (May 27).

The final report serves as a roadmap for Gary’s leadership to follow to reestablish the city’s building culture.

“Gary is a resilient city, and we are writing our comeback story,” Mayor Eddie Melton said. “The team from the University of Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture has listened to and learned from our community and produced a vision that feels like home. We are looking forward to beginning the plan’s implementation as soon as possible, and reigniting a culture of thoughtful building and investment in downtown Gary.”

The plan builds upon a charrette conducted in August 2024. It presents a strategy for physical, economic and place-based regeneration in response to community members’ input, and it unfolded in four stages:

Stage 1: Analysis and community engagement — A study of existing conditions, considerations regarding the historic nature of the city, and meetings with local stakeholders and members of the community helped the team identify aspirations, hopes and needs.

Stage 2: Dean’s Charrette — Conducted in August 2024, this interactive design workshop uncovered concepts that were presented for immediate feedback. Designs were adjusted and presented again, and then edited further in response to community input.

Stage 3: Charrette follow-up — The team prioritized critical items such as preservation assessment, zoning code review and design template plans, and then created a strategy for immediate next steps, followed by the final report.

Stage 4: Implementation — This step includes reestablishing a historic preservation board, prioritizing the preservation of historic structures through blight reversal, identifying and supporting medium-scale mixed-use catalytic projects and establishing an infill housing strategy.

“The ultimate goal of this work is to reestablish a culture of city-building in Gary which heals the community, is sustainable over time and delivers long-term value for residents and investors. These efforts both draw expertise from and provide knowledge to a regional coalition of cities confronting shared challenges,” said Marianne Cusato, director of the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative.

“The pride the residents of Gary take in their city is an inspiration, and we are honored to work with the community to develop a vision that is reflective of the city’s real needs, mindful of barriers and limitations and respectful of its culture and character,” she said.

The city didn’t get into its current state overnight and it won’t be healed and repaired overnight, said Christopher Harris, executive director of the Gary Redevelopment Department.

Because downtowns are typically the primary source of a municipality’s tax base, reinvigorating Gary’s core with dense mixed-use development while honoring Gary’s architectural aesthetic is absolutely necessary for strengthening the city’s financial picture, Harris said.

“A vibrant, attractive and walkable downtown is essential to positioning Gary — and Northwest Indiana more broadly — as an attractive destination for talent and investment,” Harris said.

“This plan will take time to implement, but the final report and the development strategy that it proposes are foundational first steps to community regeneration and a reigniting of the culture of city building in Downtown Gary,” he said.

Media contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-993-9220

Liam O’Connor selected as 2025 Richard H. Driehaus Prize Laureate at the University of Notre Dame; Philippe Rotthier wins Henry Hope Reed Award

2025-01-30T09:30:00-05:00

The RAF Bomber Command Memorial by Liam O’Connor is made from Portland stone and covered with an open structural stainless steel roof, inspired by the Vickers Wellington ‘geodetic’ airframe designed by Barnes Wallis. The riveted aluminum ceiling panels were formed from the remains of a Canadian Halifax aircraft, shot down over Belgium on May 12, 1944.

Architect Liam O’Connor has been selected as the 2025 laureate of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. The jury acknowledged his lifelong dedication to the design of a body of excellent new traditional public and private buildings and civic monuments — works projecting grace and beauty and expressing the shared emotions and cultural expectations of their audiences.

O’Connor’s war memorials, in particular, set his work apart for this year’s jury. The memorials are skillfully integrated into their urban or rural settings, with their landscape, fine art and construction details uniquely and thoughtfully developed in each case. Poetically charged, rationally disposed and emotionally laden, they are precisely sited, composed and constructed as statements of public admiration for the idea that freedom exists at all because of heroism and personal sacrifice for the common good, according to the jury citation.

The highest such integration of design, construction and symbolism is exemplified in his classical British Normandy Memorial that overlooks Gold Beach. The project is located adjacent to one of the five D-Day landing beaches during World War II. The memorial was inaugurated on June 6, 2021, 77 years after the 1944 landings, and commemorates the 22,442 British service personnel who sacrificed their lives there in the struggle to liberate Europe. The names of the fallen are carved into the structure’s 160 limestone Doric columns.

House in Belgravia is built entirely in load-bearing brickwork and lime render with Portland stone portico, steps and window sills. This project was built using largely locally sourced materials and built by highly skilled craftspeople.

The Driehaus Prize citation states, “For this project, O’Connor orchestrated a masterplan for 60 acres of land and designed several structures to be eventually built from 3,500 tons of Burgundy limestone and hundreds of sustainably felled oak trees. Such was his commitment to this work that after its construction was halted during the coronavirus pandemic, he took on the task himself while directing 500 craftsmen and craftswomen.”

The citation continues, “Typical of O’Connor’s architecture is its enrichment by symbolic elements that add highly contemporary and personal dimensions to his interpretation of classicism. For the RAF Bomber Command Memorial in Hyde Park Corner in London, his reuse of riveted metal from downed aircraft to construct the central Doric pavilion’s roof memorializes the modern war machines central to these heroic aviators’ glory and demise.”

In addition, the citation noted “the merit of his private and commercial projects, where new construction blends into existing urban settings, in elegant and inventive designs that offer users and onlookers the gift of beautiful everyday places to be.”

Philippe Rotthier wins this year’s Henry Hope Reed Award

In conjunction with the Driehaus Prize, Philippe Rotthier was named the 2025 Henry Hope Reed Award laureate for his lifelong initiatives and continuing commitment to the cause of a new traditional architecture and urbanism. For more than 50 years he has dedicated his time and personal resources to resist the modernist disruption that followed WWII and lay the groundwork for reestablishing a culture of architectural continuity. Among his notable accomplishments was his renewal of vernacular architecture on the Island of Ibiza, Spain, where he built 80 houses using local materials and crafts.

The Philippe Rotthier Foundation, based in Brussels, Belgium, has provided the institutional framework for supporting this movement for architectural renewal through publications, exhibitions, occasional design competitions and his eponymous triennial architectural awards. His relentless advocacy for architectural change has enabled the emergence of two generations of significant young architects capable of exploring alternative forms of architectural modernity, including the 2025 Driehaus Prize laureate, Liam O’Connor.

Rotthier created the European Prize for the Reconstruction of the City that has been a catalyst for spreading the message of the intellectual, social and environmental merits of a contemporary classical and vernacular culture across the European continent. Since 1982, 86 award-winning works from 33 different countries have been awarded a Rotthier Prize.

Rotthier has been a significant contributor to the movement to rebuild existing and new communities and to steward nature in ways that have been proven to help humans flourish over thousands of years. The encouragement that he has provided to architects has begun to transform the practice of a new traditional architecture and urbanism worldwide at all scales, from repair through local design and craft, to new classical and vernacular architecture at the multi-block scale, to the urbanism of large-scale infill or city extension projects.

This year’s Driehaus Prize and Henry Hope Reed Award laureates were selected by a jury composed of Melissa DelVecchio, partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Michael Lykoudis, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame; Léon Krier, architect and urbanist; Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, founding principal of DPZ CoDesign and professor at the University of Miami; Demetri Porphyrios, principal of Porphyrios Associates, London; and Julia Treese, partner at Treese Architekten in Berlin and Munich. Stefanos Polyzoides, Notre Dame architecture professor and dean, and partner at Moule & Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists, Pasadena, California, served as jury chair.

The $200,000 Driehaus Prize, the largest cash award in architecture worldwide, is granted by the Driehaus Trust in the name of Richard H. Driehaus, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Driehaus Capital Management LLC, as is the Henry Hope Reed Award of $50,000.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu.

91��Ƶ of Architecture charrette yields $98M for downtown Kalamazoo public space regeneration

2024-07-26T15:00:00-04:00

An interim road plan along Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo, Michigan, features three lanes of one-way traffic with an added bike lane. Photo credit: City of Kalamazoo

On June 27, the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, announced that it was awarded a $25 million grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program, as a result of its work with the University of Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture.

The grant, which will support the restructuring of downtown Kalamazoo thoroughfares and public spaces, is the latest of $98 million in grant funding the city has received following an intense, weeklong urban planning session conducted by the 91��Ƶ of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative in August 2022. Known as a Dean’s Charrette, the process resulted in a comprehensive plan to revitalize Kalamazoo’s downtown.

“This grant is but one of an extraordinary total of $98 million the city has received based on the design, visions, ideas and final recommendations of the project completed by the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative,” said Rebekah Kik, Kalamazoo assistant city manager.

The initiative began in 2021 and has conducted six charrettes in southwest Michigan and northern Indiana. Through its 100-Mile Coalition, it seeks to partner with communities within a 100-mile radius of the University of Notre Dame.

“Our work in Kalamazoo has resulted in the most ambitious regeneration work within the 100-Mile Coalition region since we began the Dean’s Charrettes,” said Stefanos Polyzoides, the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture.

“We expect similar excellent outcomes going forward because the need to listen to the people of each community to help them rebuild their downtowns and urban neighborhoods is immense. This incredible amount of funding — and the benefits it brings to Kalamazoo — is the ideal outcome for our community-building efforts.”

Marianne Cusato, director of the 91��Ƶ of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative, co-led the Kalamazoo charrette process with Polyzoides.

“The initiative’s charrettes conducted in northern Indiana and southwest Michigan are one of the school’s avenues to positively impact regional communities that have been long disenfranchised,” she said.

The latest $25 million award will fund the rebuilding of the current six-lane, one-way Michigan Avenue, which is downtown Kalamazoo’s main street. The city has received two other grants to assist with the planning, design and engineering of its streets and public spaces.

Through the city’s Streets For All program, downtown streets will be redesigned to provide safe transportation for everyone in the community and to foster a welcoming, inclusive downtown by calming traffic and restoring two-way operations. During the next several years, the streets will be converted to two-way traffic, be modernized with underground utilities and incorporate people-focused, street-level designs. Construction on the street segments is expected to begin in August 2027, Kik said.

Ultimately, Cusato said, the goal is to create human-scale, walkable communities by repairing abandoned, vacant and underused properties; reducing critical housing shortages; addressing inequalities that result from a legacy of housing and transportation policies; restoring blighted historic properties while minimizing displacement; and mitigating the impact of climate change through sustainable development patterns of growth.

“While this work is the cornerstone of our service mission at the 91��Ƶ of Architecture and for the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative, it also serves as a foundation for a body of research that seeks to find solutions that address similar critical issues facing cities throughout our region and across the country,” she said.

Media contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu

91��Ƶ of Architecture partners with city of Gary on downtown revitalization plan

2024-07-25T16:00:00-04:00

Eddie Melton, mayor of Gary, Indiana, speaks at a press conference announcing the city’s partnership with Notre Dame

On Monday (July 22), the University of Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative and the city of Gary, Indiana, launched the first phase of a downtown revitalization project. City officials highlighted Gary’s rich history and expressed their enthusiasm for this promising new partnership with Notre Dame.

“This partnership is a unique opportunity to create a new master plan for our great city. We’re excited to begin this work with the support of a world-class institution like Notre Dame,” said Eddie Melton, mayor of Gary.

The partnership will begin with a series of community listening sessions followed by a weeklong public urban planning session, conducted by the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative. This process, known as a Dean’s Charrette, will result in a proposed vision for the next 100 years, and a 10-year action plan for the rebuilding and revitalization of downtown Gary.

Marianne Cusato, a professor in the 91��Ƶ of Architecture, is the director of the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative.

Marianne Cusato, director of the 91��Ƶ of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration initiative

“It’s an honor to collaborate with Mayor Melton, his team and the residents of Gary to help facilitate a conversation about the future of the city,” she said. “Our initiative works closely with cities throughout the region to assess the conditions, listen to community aspirations and balance fiscal realities to develop an inclusive and equitable vision for the built environment.”

The Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative began in 2021 and has conducted seven charrettes throughout northern Indiana and southwest Michigan. Through its 100-Mile Coalition, it seeks to partner with communities within a 100-mile radius of the University of Notre Dame to guide leadership and community members, share knowledge and assist with community development efforts.

“The process that we have honed through partnerships with La Porte, Kalamazoo and Elkhart, among other communities, allows us to inspire a plan to bring opportunities to Gary that have been unrealized until now by listening to community members and leadership, then translating the needs into a prioritized, actionable set of steps toward them,” said Stefanos Polyzoides, the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture.

Chris Harris, Gary’s director of redevelopment, called the partnership with Notre Dame a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for the city.

“Today, we start the work of rebuilding and maximizing the potential of our downtown. Our goal is to ultimately attract new businesses and talent to invest, live and work within our urban core. Residents will benefit from a concentration of amenities that are unmatched in the region: a safe, walkable downtown with quality public spaces, offering multimodal transportation, with easy access to Chicago and Indiana Dunes National Park,” he said.

The scope of work of the collaboration includes developing a vision and implementation plan for the regeneration of downtown Gary, creating a set of design standards for the Broadway corridor, developing a series of design templates for workforce housing units and commercial spaces and developing a concept design for the new intermodal transit facility.

Melton said, “Thanks to the passage of Indiana SB 434 in 2023, we have been able to jump-start downtown Gary’s revitalization with $12 million of blight elimination. Moving forward, we want to make sure that we are very intentional about what we decide to rebuild. This partnership will equip our community with tools to envision a sustainable plan for development that brings opportunities for businesses and residents to thrive in the heart of downtown.”

Cusato said the ultimate goal for the collaboration is to create a vibrant downtown where current residents of Gary are active stakeholders in the city’s future, and new residents and investors are drawn to call Gary home.

“Achieving this goal starts by designing a built environment that inspires a pride of place, creates economic opportunities and offers safe and attainable housing options,” she said.

Media Contacts:

Carrie Gates, University of Notre Dame associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-993-9220

Erika Blackwell, City of Gary Chief Communications Officer, eblackwell@gary.gov, 219-292-1251

91��Ƶ of Architecture’s Krusche wins prestigious Rome Prize

2024-04-26T11:43:00-04:00

Krupali Krusche (photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame)

The American Academy in Rome has awarded Krupali Krusche, an associate professor in the University of Notre Dame’s 91��Ƶ of Architecture, the 2024 Adele Chatfield-Taylor Rome Prize in Historic Preservation and Conservation.

Krusche was awarded the fellowship on Thursday (April 25) during the Janet and Arthur Ross Rome Prize Ceremony and Concert held in New York City at Carnegie Hall.

“Learning that I had been awarded the Rome Prize Fellowship was a moment of pure joy and overwhelming gratitude. It felt like a validation of my belief that the preservation of our architectural heritage is not just about keeping the past alive but is a vital part of our dialogue with the future,” Krusche said.

For more than a century, the American Academy in Rome has awarded the Rome Prize to support innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities. Each year, the Rome Prize is awarded to as many as 30 artists and scholars who represent the highest standard of excellence.

Rome’s history has been central to Krusche’s research for the last 15 years. Her work — which centers on the digital documentation of World Heritage sites — has focused on the Roman Forum in partnership with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (now known as P.AR.Co), Ministry of Heritage and Culture and the Archaeological Service, Rome, as well as the Belvedere at the Vatican in collaboration with the chief architect at the Vatican Museums and the Soprintendenza Beni Architettonici.

These projects were initiated under the four-year agreement with the World Heritage Center of UNESCO.

The award will allow Krusche to dive deeper into the legacy of Palladio drawings in the Roman Forum and the question of preservation of cultural heritage, focusing on the architectural marvels of the standing temples on site.

“The city is a living museum, a testament to architectural innovation through ages, offering lessons in sustainability, design and beauty that resonate with our contemporary quest for harmony between the past and the future,” she said.

“I’m particularly excited about the chance to work hands-on with Roman monuments, applying and perhaps even expanding upon the digital documentation techniques I’ve specialized in.”

Krusche’s publications based on her Rome research have been far-reaching and include multiple papers, conference proceedings and books. A 3D exhibit and international conference, “The Digital Future of World Heritage,” was conducted in partnership with the United States Embassy in Italy, NASA, UNESCO and the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage in 2014.

In addition, a drawing exhibit of the ongoing work at the Vatican, titled “New Drawings of the Vatican Belvedere,” was set up at the Villino Stroganoff in Rome in collaboration with the Vatican and Bibliotheca Hertziana in 2018. And in 2023, she exhibited her research team’s efforts with a 3D experience of the Roman Forum at the Immers-Expo 2023 at Oxford University.

Krusche has co-authored a recent book on the Forum, “From Pen to Pixel: 91��Ƶ of the Roman Forum and the Digital Future of World Heritage,” with Patrizia Fortini.

Established in 1894, the American Academy in Rome is America’s oldest overseas center for independent studies and advanced research in the arts and humanities. The academy has become a diverse and global residential community for artists and scholars from a wide range of disciplines to live and work in Rome. The support provided by the academy to Rome Prize and Italian Fellows and invited residents helps strengthen the arts and humanities.

“This fellowship means that I can contribute more meaningfully to saving the essence of our shared human history. It’s a responsibility I cherish deeply, and I am eager to embark on this adventure, knowing well the challenges and triumphs it will bring,” Krusche said.

“Set against the backdrop of Rome’s eternal beauty, the academy allows creatives and scholars to immerse themselves fully in their projects. It’s not just about the research or the creation; it’s about living within the layers of history, breathing the air of past centuries, and letting the city’s ancient stories seep into your work, enriching it beyond imagination.”

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu or 574-993-9220

Maurice Cox wins 2024 Henry Hope Reed Award

2024-01-25T13:01:00-05:00

Maurice Cox

Richard H. Driehaus jury members have named Maurice Cox, a civic leader, urban planner and educator, the 2024 laureate of the Henry Hope Reed Award at the University of Notre Dame, to be celebrated on March 23 (Saturday) in Chicago.

The jury awarded this year’s prize in honor of Cox’s efforts to address social and economic inequity by means of well-informed policy and design, his contributions to education and the importance of preserving the social and built fabric of communities, and his remarkable commitment to public service.

“His expertise working across political appointments, leadership positions in education, private practice, and elected roles over the course of a long and varied career is an example of how civic engagement and attention to design can directly improve the lives of each and every member of a community,” said Stefanos Polyzoides, Driehaus Prize jury chair and the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Professor and Dean of Notre Dame’s 91��Ƶ of Architecture.

Cox’s contributions to the built environment encompass a much larger sphere in the world of public service. As a member of the Charlottesville, Virginia, city council from 1996 to 2002 and as its mayor from 2002 to 2004, he demonstrated how one person can make a difference through knowledge, wisdom, collaboration and dedication to the common good.

“Throughout his career, Maurice Cox stressed strategies that provide access to housing and neighborhood services for all citizens through a mixed-use model of urban development and has worked consistently to make places more sustainable, resilient and livable,” the jury citation reads. “He has repeatedly put himself in places where the challenges seemed the greatest and has left behind solid foundations that others can build upon.”

During his mayoral term, Charlottesville was ranked as the “#1 Best Place to Live in the USA & Canada” by Frommer’s Cities Ranked and Rated. It was also the smallest city in America to maintain a AAA-bond rating for excellence in fiscal management with a municipal city budget of $100 million. Under his leadership, several large projects were completed, including the passage of an award-winning zoning ordinance in support of mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented development; new infill residential neighborhoods and mixed-income, higher-density housing; and a 2-mile, federally funded parkway entrance into the city.

Cox’s planning work continued beyond public service in Virginia. He went on from teaching at the University of Virginia to Tulane University, where he managed successful programs at the Tulane City Center, URBANbuild, the Tulane Regional Urban Design Center, the school’s preservation program and its Master of Sustainable Real Estate Development program.

The next stage in his career brought him first to Detroit and then to Chicago, cities where he directed the planning and development process with notable results. In Detroit, as director of planning, Cox infused new energy and talent into his department and began the process of neighborhood regeneration in one of the most disinvested places in America. In Chicago, as commissioner of planning and development, Cox led a campaign that included new solutions for affordable housing across the many underserved neighborhoods in the city, with high attention paid to community building and citizen engagement. His revitalization strategy attracted $1.2 billion in private investment to serve development that addressed greater equity and justice.

Cox, who studied architecture at Cooper Union in New York under the guidance of John Hejduk, is co-founder of the national Social, Economic, Environmental, Design (SEED) Network. He has served as design director of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in Washington, D.C., led the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and the Governors’ Institute on Community Design, and oversaw the award of more than $2 million a year in NEA design grants across the United States.

This year’s laureate was selected by a jury composed of Melissa DelVecchio, partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Michael Lykoudis, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame; Léon Krier, architect and urbanist; Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, founding principal of DPZ CoDesign and professor at the University of Miami; Demetri Porphyrios, principal of Porphyrios Associates, London; and Julia Treese, partner at Treese Architekten in Berlin. Stefanos Polyzoides, Notre Dame architecture professor and dean, and partner in Moule & Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists, Pasadena, California, served as jury chair.

The Henry Hope Reed award of $50,000 is granted by the Driehaus Trust, in the name of Richard H. Driehaus, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Driehaus Capital Management LLC.

Peter Pennoyer named 2024 Richard H. Driehaus Prize winner

2024-01-25T13:00:00-05:00

Peter Pennoyer

In honor of his commitment to classical architecture, along with his contributions to preservation, urbanism and historiography, Peter Pennoyer has been named the recipient of the 2024 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. He will be awarded the prize during a ceremony on March 23 (Saturday) in Chicago.

“Pennoyer’s creative spirit is rooted in tradition. His work as an architect reflects a deep understanding of history that resonates through every one of his books and buildings,” said Stefanos Polyzoides, Driehaus Prize jury chair and the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of Notre Dame’s 91��Ƶ of Architecture. “His projects are designed with extraordinary compositional care and are constructed with the highest degree of craftsmanship, down to the last detail.”

The jury citation reads, “Pennoyer’s visionary work has illustrated how the classical ideas of architecture provide an inexhaustible source for inspiration and invention. His body of work consistently demonstrates his ability to design beautiful and durable buildings with a nuanced elegance that moves the spirit of all who experience them.

“His contribution to Traditional Architecture has been seminal. His design work is engaged in both the recovery and the renewal of tradition. Individual projects are restrained in scale and proportion, harmonious in form and distinct in materiality, exhibiting a sense of decorum. Every one of his buildings — whether set in the city or in the countryside — enhances the natural character of their sites,” the citation continues.

Beginning at a time when few contemporaries shared similar interests, Pennoyer honed his design skills in scholarly residential architecture. His practice evolved to include apartment buildings and institutional and commercial interiors, which the citation describes as “unmatched in their form and details — beautiful, imaginative and discreet — belying the great effort such excellence requires.” Developed during the past 30 years, Pennoyer’s practice employs multiple partners and many younger architects who continue to bring his ideas and designs to life.

House in Millbrook by Peter Pennoyer

His commitment to sharing his knowledge and experience with his contemporaries extends to a broad spectrum of civic engagement. This ranges from thoroughly researched counterprojects for important development proposals in New York City, including the Hudson Rail Yards in 2004 and the New York Public Library in 2014, to guiding organizations as a board member, including the Municipal Art Society of New York; the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, where as board chair he promoted the formation of chapters throughout the country; and the U.S. General Services Administration’s Design Excellence Program.

In his many books, many of which he wrote with Anne Walker, preservationist and architectural historian, he explores the broad range of precedents from within the classical and vernacular traditions that underpin his and his firm’s work.

“Pennoyer’s books, which document the work of Harrie T. Lindeberg, Cross and Cross, Grosvenor Atterbury, Warren and Wetmore, and Delano and Aldrich, are an inspiration to Peter, Anne and their collaborators in the ongoing work of their firm. They are also guiding a generation of architects seeking to perpetuate the continuity that comes from practicing classicism as a living language capable of artistic expression and innovation,” the citation concludes.

“The combination of excellence in the practice of architecture, urbanist advocacy, civic engagement, academic research and publication elevates Pennoyer to the highest echelon among his contemporaries,” Polyzoides said.

This year’s Driehaus Prize laureate was selected by a jury composed of Melissa DelVecchio, partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Michael Lykoudis, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame; Léon Krier, architect and urbanist; Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, founding principal of DPZ CoDesign and professor at the University of Miami; Demetri Porphyrios, principal of Porphyrios Associates, London; and Julia Treese, partner at Treese Architekten, Berlin. Polyzoides, also a partner in Moule & Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists, Pasadena, California, served as jury chair.

The Driehaus Prize of $200,000 is granted by the Driehaus Trust, in the name of Richard H. Driehaus, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Driehaus Capital Management LLC.

University of Notre Dame, City of Elkhart, Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce join forces to address affordable housing and economic development strategies

2023-08-04T15:30:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture, in partnership with the City of Elkhart and the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce, will conduct its sixth Dean’s Charrette on Aug. 13-16 in Elkhart, Indiana.

A charrette is an intensive planning session where architects, citizens and community stakeholders collaborate to develop a vision for a project. The Elkhart charrette will focus on strategies for affordable housing and future economic development for the South Main, Tolson and Benham West neighborhoods.

“Building on the community engagement of the Thrive Plan, we are ready to identify actionable next steps for the future of this important area of our city,” said Levon Johnson, president of the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce.

“This is an opportunity for all of our community members to speak to the future of what their neighborhoods can be. The goal is to incorporate all feasible ideas into actionable steps,” he said.

Elkhart Mayor Rod Roberson added, “By incorporating feedback from residents and stakeholders from these neighborhoods, we are going to be able to work toward a plan that is the most impactful for the people who live, work and play on the south side of Elkhart.”

Elkhart residents are invited to a community listening session from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 8) at Roosevelt Elementary 91��Ƶ, 201 W. Wolf Ave., where they can learn more and provide feedback to the charrette team. Public presentations will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on both Aug. 13 (Sunday) and Aug. 14 (Monday) at Hotel Elkhart, Aria Ballroom, 500 S. Main St. in Elkhart. The charrette team will present its final proposals to the public from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16 (Wednesday), also at the Hotel Elkhart, Aria Ballroom.

The charrette process builds on information gathered at the community listening sessions hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, the city and the University of Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture. These meetings allow participants’ voices to be heard about challenges, opportunities, hopes and concerns they have for the South Main, Toslon and Benham West neighborhoods.

“Drawing from voices of the community, we will use the design process to formulate a vision and strategy to create a vibrant, thriving, walkable, public realm, as well as provide a catalyst for building critically needed housing in Elkhart,” said Marianne Cusato, director of the 91��Ƶ of Architecture’s Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative. “Our goal for this process is to generate a built environment that activates opportunities for members of the community to become local stakeholders by creating paths to affordable home ownership and entrepreneurship.”

The Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative provides assistance to municipalities and nonprofit organizations to improve communities through economic development by reimagining the built environment.

The work of the initiative targets immediate local impact as well as national and global influence through three interrelated activities: actionable projects, research and education. Faculty, students and collaborating professional teams carry out these activities under the leadership of the school’s dean, Stefanos Polyzoides, and Cusato.

The Elkhart charrette is the sixth in a series of Dean’s Charrettes in the region, including projects in South Bend, Mishawaka, La Porte and Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Notre Dame, Healthcare Foundation of La Porte and city of La Porte conduct design workshops

2023-05-23T15:00:00-04:00

This week, the Notre Dame 91��Ƶ of Architecture, in partnership with the Healthcare Foundation of La Porte and the city of La Porte, is conducting a charrette — an intensive planning session where architects, citizens and others collaborate to develop a design or vision for a project — focusing on housing and regeneration in the downtown area of La Porte, Indiana, specifically the neighborhoods surrounding Lincolnway Avenue.

La Porte residents and local stakeholders attended an opening presentation on Monday (May 22). Community stakeholders are also invited to attend a presentation of preliminary proposals from 5:30 to 7 p.m. CDT today (May 23) and a final public presentation from 5:30 to 7 p.m. CDT Thursday (May 25), both at St. Peter’s Catholic Church 91��Ƶ, 1101 Michigan Ave., La Porte, where they can learn more and provide feedback.

The charrette builds on information gathered from a series of meetings and listening sessions. Hosted by the 91��Ƶ of Architecture, the informal meetings allow participants’ voices to be heard about the housing needs, concerns and issues in the downtown area directly from those community members who live and work there. Next, the team will focus on creating a vibrant public realm while addressing critical housing needs.

“We will formulate a vision and implementation strategy to encourage economic development downtown as well as to provide a catalyst for building critically needed housing,” said Marianne Cusato, director of the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative. “The goal of this work is to regenerate the downtown without displacement of the existing residents, while also attracting new members of the community to La Porte.”

The Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative, a program within the 91��Ƶ of Architecture, provides assistance to municipalities and nonprofit organizations to improve economic development by reimagining the built environment.

Originally published by Carrie Rulli at architecture.nd.edu on May 23, 2023.

Two 91��Ƶ of Architecture faculty members appointed to advise global network

2023-05-02T16:00:00-04:00

Tiffany Abernathy (left) and Marianne Cusato

Professor of the Practice Marianne Cusato and Adjunct Professor of the Practice Tiffany Abernathy, both at the University of Notre Dame’s 91��Ƶ of Architecture, have been appointed to the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU) board of trustees.

INTBAU announced their appointments April 18, along with the appointment of Akel Ismail Kahera, professor of Islamic architecture and urbanism in the College of Islamic 91��Ƶ at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

Through workshops, summer schools, study tours, conferences, awards and competitions, INTBAU’s vision is that every building and place is made with a conscience, drawing from and developing traditional knowledge and techniques to uphold everyone’s right to a place to live that is resilient, adaptable, beautiful and supportive of local identity.

“Our future rests in organizations that promote education and grassroots activism. INTBAU speaks to building a better tomorrow through belonging, plurality and tradition,” Abernathy said. “Its network has the global power to create consequential change through its mission rooted in cultural freedom. I am humbled to be a part of this diverse family of changemakers.”

INTBAU was established in 2001 in London and has since gained 40 chapters and over 8,000 members in more than 100 countries worldwide. The organization works under the patronage of Royal Founding Patron King Charles III, the former Prince of Wales.

The mission and vision of the organization align with both professors’ work at the University of Notre Dame as educators and in their private practices, Cusato said.

“It’s an honor to join INTBAU’s board and contribute to a global network dedicated to building a more sustainable, resilient, just and meaningful future through the exchange of knowledge, active advocacy and sharing of time-tested methods for creating places of lasting value,” Cusato said.

Harriet Wennberg, executive director of INTBAU, said in her statement that the new appointments will strengthen the organization’s work to promote traditional building, architecture and urbanism internationally.

Originally published by Carrie Rulli at architecture.nd.edu on April 27.

Ben Pentreath named 2023 Richard H. Driehaus Prize laureate

2023-01-17T11:00:13-05:00

Ben Pentreath, architect, designer, educator and author, is the recipient of the 2023 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. He will be awarded the $200,000 prize during a ceremony on March 25 (Saturday) in Chicago.

“Ben’s artistry and architecture combine to create urbanism across all contexts while he works effortlessly in harmony with the local landscape, heritage, climate and culture of the settings where his work is rooted — lending an aura of both authenticity and cultural continuity to it,” said Stefanos Polyzoides, Driehaus Prize jury chair and the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of Notre Dame’s 91��Ƶ of Architecture. “Most importantly, the work conveys a sense of stewardship of the Earth and its resources at a time when an attitude of conservation and investment should be an essential part of the solutions to address the environmental crisis of our time.”

The jury citation states: “As a luminary within a rising generation of architects, his work encompasses what the prize celebrates most: beauty, durability and commitment to place.”

Graduating with first-class honors in history of art and architecture in 1995, Pentreath excelled at the University of Edinburgh. While attending the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture in London, he won the student competition for his design for the Poet Laureate Pub on Pummery Square, Poundbury. After working in New York and with the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, he established his own architecture practice in 2004 and now employs more than 40 architects, urban designers and interior designers at his London studio. His interior design shop, Pentreath & Hall, which he co-owns with artist Bridie Hall, is one of the most influential studios in the London design world.

Poundbury Royal Pavilion

Pentreath’s firm has designed residential and commercial buildings in Poundbury and other new towns throughout the United Kingdom, including Truro and Tornagrain.

“The designs unerringly establish a sense of place, whether new or in the transformation of the existing,” according to the citation. “The durable construction, arrangement of interior spaces to take advantage of natural lighting and ventilation and placement and siting in mixed-use, walkable cities and towns and villages offer alternatives to the current notions of green architecture which typically rely solely on technological solutions.”

Pentreath is the 21st recipient of the Driehaus Prize, named for Richard H. Driehaus, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Driehaus Capital Management LLC.

In conjunction with the Driehaus Prize, the $50,000 Henry Hope Reed Award — given annually to an individual working outside the practice of architecture who has supported the cultivation of the traditional city, its architecture and its art — will be presented to Adele Chatfield-Taylor, president emerita of the American Academy in Rome, historic preservationist and nonprofit administrator. Chatfield-Taylor will also be honored at the March 25 award ceremony.

Adele Chatfield Taylor

The jury citation states, “For 25 years Chatfield-Taylor directed the American Academy in Rome with a deep commitment to promoting an educational mission based on the lessons that the Eternal City can impart for resolving the design challenges of the present. She oversaw the process of faithfully restoring the McKim, Mead and White building and its gardens while laying the foundations for the Academy to be a solvent, vital and innovative international educational community. She continues to serve this cause as its president emerita.”

Her influence in establishing the Mayors’ Institute on City Design has inspired mayors to be educated to become the keepers of the character and livability of their cities. She established the educational framework for the program that has produced hundreds of mayor-urbanist alumni who today continue advocating for architecture and urban design, challenging planners, architects and developers to work in the spirit of improving their cities.

“Adele has elevated the idea of historic preservation from a narrow focus on individual buildings to the stewardship of the city and, through education, the propagation of a culture of minding both their form and the well-being of their citizens,” Polyzoides said. “We are deeply thankful for her accomplishments, as we are the recipients of what she has accomplished over the last decades.”

This year’s Driehaus Prize and Henry Hope Reed Award laureates were selected by a jury composed of Robert Davis, developer and founder of Seaside, Florida; Melissa DelVecchio, partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Michael Lykoudis, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame; Léon Krier, architect and urban planner; Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, founding principal of DPZ; and Demetri Porphyrios, principal of Porphyrios Associates.

91��Ƶ of Architecture to host Notre-Dame Cathedral restoration architects

2022-09-16T15:22:00-04:00

Architects Philippe Villeneuve and Rémi Fromont, who are leading the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, will visit the University of Notre Dame to deliver the John Burgee Lecture at 5:15 p.m. Sept. 27 (Tuesday) in the Matthew and Joyce Walsh Family Hall of Architecture auditorium.

During their lecture, “Notre-Dame de Paris: Architecting a Legacy,” Villeneuve, chief architect of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and Fromont, chief architect of historical monuments in France, will speak about their restoration plans, efforts and progress after a devastating fire in April 2019.

"We are proud and honored to have these French architect colleagues visit our campus and share with us the progress of their work,” said Stefanos Polyzoides, the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of Architecture.

Villeneuve, a licensed architect since 1989 and a chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, has led the reconstruction and restoration efforts since the 2019 fire. He was appointed architect in chief of historical monuments of the Domaine National de Chambord in 2011 and of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral in 2013.

Fromont, who received his degree from the École de Chaillot in 2014, carried out a survey of the Gothic frameworks of Notre-Dame Cathedral during his training. In the aftermath of the disaster, which destroyed the frameworks, this vital knowledge led to his being called upon by Villeneuve to aid in the restoration work.

“Returning the building to its original form is an affirmation of the importance of the values that it has embodied over the centuries. The historical, spiritual and architectural connections between this most important building in the world dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and our own 'Golden Dome' are deep and enduring,” Polyzoides said.

This is the first in the 91��Ƶ of Architecture’s Fall Lecture Series, which provides a venue for students, faculty and the larger community to engage in critical thinking on current issues in architecture and urbanism. The talks also allow participants to interact with the distinguished practitioners, academics and theorists who shape the world’s natural and built environment. The lectures, which are free of charge and open to the public, will be offered both in person and live via Zoom. Registration is required for the virtual event.

Originally published by Carrie Rulli at architecture.nd.edu on Sept. 9.