By Tom McClimon
June 28, 2010

"Like U.S. Senator Nelson, who became an astronaut and said he looked at the earth in a different way once having gone into space, mayors who attend a Mayors Institute on City Design look at their cities in a different way," stated Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran in announcing the Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. Award for Urban Design. This new award will be sponsored by the Conference of Mayors and the American Architectural Foundation.

Ron Bogle, President and CEO of the American Architectural Foundation, was on hand to help make the joint announcement. "We hope this award, the most prestigious of its kind, will help make communities more livable and sustainable places." Boggle announced that the annual award application will be available later this summer.

Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley, Jr., whom the award is named for and is founder of the Mayors Institute on City Design, expressed his gratitude and appreciation for this honor and hoped that the award will "inspire all of us to work more passionately to make our cities more beautiful."

The Mayors Institute on City Design in now in its 24th year and over 800 mayors have participated in the program that brings mayors and architects together to discuss local projects.