2013 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence

The 2013 medalists reflect great diversity and demonstrate that effective urban placemaking happens at all scales.

Inspiring Change: the 2015 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence includes detailed case studies and lessons learned about the winning projects including:

  • Inspiration Kitchens—Garfield Park in Chicago, Illinois
    A restaurant offering healthy and affordable meals and food service training
  • Congo Street Initiative in Dallas, Texas
    Community-stabilizing reconstruction of family-owned homes in collaboration with resident owners
  • Louisville Waterfront Park in Louisville, Kentucky
    A reclaimed waterfront park reconnecting the city with the river
  • The Steel Yard in Providence, Rhode Island
    Adaptive reuse creating an industrial arts campus and small business incubator
  • Via Verde in Bronx, New York
    An innovative model for healthy and sustainable low-income housing 
Lessons Learned themes include:
  • The importance of places that bring people together and improve lives
  • Anchoring projects in place
  • The increased role of landscape
  • Leadership
  • Sustainable development and environmental considerations
  • Healthy living
  • The scale of approach including the emergence of the do-it-yourself and “maker movement.”
Citation (Chicago): Shibley, Robert G., Richard Wener, Anne-Marie Lubenau, and Jay Farbstein.Inspiring Change: 2013 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence. Cambridge, MA: Bruner Foundation, 2014.