Cooper-Hewitt Lauds World's Top Design Talent

Winners were named in nine categories.

by Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 5/13/2008

From left: Rolling Huts in Mazama, Washington, 2008, by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects; Studio House. Seattle, Washington, 1997, by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects.

An industrial designer, a media giant, and a visionary thinker are among the winners of the prestigious National Design Awards, presented by New York's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The program, now in its ninth year, celebrates design excellence across disciplines.

"The work of this year's honorees has made a broad and powerful impact on our society," says Cooper-Hewitt director Paul Warwick Thompson. "The innovations of visionaries like Google, this year's Corporate Achievement winner, and Lifetime Achievement recipient Charles Harrison, are a testament to design's ability to connect with a wide audience and affect all areas of daily life, from the way we work, use technology and interact with our environment."

Winners were honored in nine categories. A gala dinner and awards ceremony will be held October 23 at the Cooper-Hewitt, in conjunction with the musem's third annual National Design Week, October 19-25.

The jury was composed of:

Tim Brown, jury chair and chief executive officer and president, IDEO

James Carpenter, principal, James Carpenter Design Associates

Francisco Costa, creative director, Calvin Klein Collection for women, Calvin Klein

Camilo Pardo, design chief, Special Vehicles Team and Living Legends Studio, Ford Motor Company

Mark Robbins, dean, Syracuse University School of Architecture

Georgianna Stout, founding partner and creative director, 2x4

Raquel Tudela, global creative director, Bloomberg L.P.

Lauren Zalaznick, president, Bravo and Oxygen Media

From left: Columbus Circle New York in 2005, by Olin Partnership; Gap Headquarters in San Francisco, 2001 by Olin Partnership.

A complete list of winners is below.

Lifetime Achievement

Charles Harrison, former industrial designer at Sears, Roebuck & Company, and current design instructor at Columbia College in Chicago

Corporate Achievement

Information giant Google

Finalists

JetBlue airline

OXO International kitchen and housewares product manufacturer

Design Mind

Michael Bierut, partner at New York-based design firm Pentagram

Finalists

Bruce Nussbaum, assistant managing editor at BusinessWeek magazine

Michael Sorkin, a writer, critic, and designer and principal of Michael Sorkin Studio and director of the Graduate Urban Design Program at Architecture at the City College of New York.

Architecture Design

Tom Kundig, a partner in the Seattle-based firm Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Finalists

LOT-EK, a firm led by partners Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano specializing in reuse of prefabricated objects and industrial materials

Weiss/Manfredi, and architecture, art, infrastructure and landscape design firm founded by Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi

Communications Design

Scott Stowell, founder of New York-based design studio Open

Finalists

Stephen Doyle, graphic designer

Prologue Films, a a motion graphics design company led by Kimberly and Kyle Cooper

Fashion Design

Ralph Pucci, clothing, accessory, and footwear designer