November 1, 2004

Since its founding in 1987, the biennial Rudy Bruner Award (RBA) has been working with mayors and other urban experts to discover and celebrate urban places that bring new life to their communities. The Rudy Bruner Award seeks to promote fresh and innovative thinking about cities, and encourage us all to demand - and build - excellence in the urban environment. Award winners are places that incorporate political, community, environmental, and formal elements into an inclusive and multi-dimensional whole. They are characterized by quality design, and by their social, economic, and contextual contributions to the urban environment, often providing innovative solutions to some of our cites most intractable problems.

Each RBA Selection Committee includes a major metropolitan area. The distinguished group of RBA Selection Committee alumnae mayors include Mayor Joseph Riley, Charleston; Mayor George Latimer, St. Paul; Mayor Vincent Schoemehl, St. Louis; Mayor Harvey Gantt, Charlotte; Mayor Norman Rice, Seattle; Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Baltimore; Mayor Tom Murphy, Pittsburgh; Mayor Wellington Webb, Denver; and Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Boston. For the upcoming 2005 Award cycle, the Selection Committee is pleased to welcome Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta.

Each RBA cycle recognizes five outstanding places as winners. The Gold Medal winner receives $50,000, and four Silver Medal winners each receive $10,000. Some of our past winners are: Village of Arts and Humanities, Philadelphia; Project Row Houses, Houston; New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark; Providence River Relocation, Providence; Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York; Pike Place Market, Seattle; and Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, Los Angeles. Profiles of these projects and other RBA winners can be found at www.brunerfoundation.org. All of the winners and winning cities are recognized by the Bruner Foundation in an award presentation, and are publicized in Bruner Foundation books and by presentations at meetings and in media throughout the country.

The Foundation is pleased to announce that applications for the 2005 Rudy Bruner Award are now available. The Foundation would like to encourage mayors and others in the public sector to submit applications for exciting projects that have made a difference to their cities, and have enlivened critical blocks, neighborhoods and communities. Many of our winners have provided models that can be applied to other communities, and can offer new approaches to persistent urban issues. We welcome projects of all sizes and types, and seek a wide diversity of applications from around the country. For more information on the 2005 Rudy Bruner Award, the Selection Committee and critical deadlines, or to download the application, please visit us at: www.brunerfoundation.org The 2005 application can also be ordered by email at: application@brunerfoundation.org, or by phone at: 617-492-8401 X 184. We hope to hear from you.