Chicago Mayor to be honored at National Design Awards

Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago, has been named the Design Patron by Paul Warwick Thompson, director of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, for the 2005 National Design Awards.

Daley is being recognized for his efforts over the past 16 years to transform Chicago into the greenest city in America by encouraging efficient energy use, promoting the landscaping industry, and creating multipurpose public spaces like Millennium Park.

"Richard Daley embodies the type of design champion that all cities should be fortunate enough to have," says Thompson. "His leadership addresses the present needs of Chicago without neglecting future environmental concerns."

Since Daley became mayor in 1989, the city has planted 400,000 trees and begun an effort to attract renewable energy companies and create a sustainable landscaping industry. He built the first municipal rooftop garden on City Hall and one of the five buildings in the United States to receive the Platinum rating from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

Millennium Park, the most ambitious public/private undertaking in Chicago's history, was constructed over railroad tracks and parking lots in downtown Chicago. This widely acclaimed showplace of architecture and the arts, which opened in 2004, features a spectacular band shell designed by Frank Gehry, a popular reflecting sculpture designed by Anish Kapoor, an interactive fountain designed by Jaume Plensa, a garden designed by Kathryn Gustafson, a theater for music and dance, and a restaurant and ice rink.

Mayor Daley has received awards from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Urban Parks Institute, the National Arbor Day Foundation, the Garden Club of America, and the Kevin Lynch Award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the city's environmental programs.

The Design Patron Award was created by Thompson in 2001 as one of the National Design Awards, to celebrate an individual's profound and meaningful long-term commitment to design. A recipient of this award is chosen by Thompson each year. Daley joins previous winners Stanley Marcus, hotelier Andre Balazs, Gordon Segal of Crate & Barrel, and Amanda M. Burden, chair of the New York City Planning Commission.

Daley will be officially honored, along with Eva Zeisel, the Lifetime Achievement winner; Patagonia, the Corporate Achievement winner; and Katherine and Michael McCoy, the Design Mind receipents, at the October 20 gala, which will be held at Cooper-Hewitt's landmark headquarters on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Winners of the remaining six categories of architecture design, communications design, landscape design, interior design, product design, and fashion design will be announced during this ceremony.