MAS started out the month with the opening of the exhibit Re-Imagining Cities: Urban Design After the Age of Oil on October 1. It is co-sponsored by PennDesign and on view in our galleries through December 4, 2009. Click here for more information about MAS exhibits, including gallery hours.

MAS was proud to present Robert A.M. Stern and Peter Malkin with the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal on October 26, MAS’ annual award given to individuals and organizations that have made an extraordinary impact on the quality of New York’s built environment. For more information on this year’s honorees, click here.

Our President, Vin Cipolla spoke at a Save America’s Treasures event on October 21, to benefit Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s home in upstate New York. Vin was also the guest speaker at the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association’s annual Architectural Preservation Awards on October 22, where he spoke on the architectural character of Murray Hill and the importance of preservation. Continue Reading>>

Departing MAS President Kent Barwick was awarded the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal at the MAS Gala Benefit earlier this month in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the city of New York. Held in a clear tent on the plaza of the iconic Seagram Building on Park Avenue and surrounded by some of New York’s most important buildings, a series of guests, including New York Governor David Paterson and a chorus line of former Rockettes, toasted Mr. Barwick and his excellence in leading the Municipal Art Society. Click on the ‘play’ icon above to watch a slideshow of the event. [All photos: Steven Tucker]

For 58 years now, the Municipal Art Society has honored a New Yorker who has made an outstanding contribution to the city of New York. Starting in 1950, this great honor has been bestowed upon an impressive list of personalities including legendary architecture critic, Ada Louise Huxtable (1982), Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., (1991), William (father of Wallace and New Yorker writer) Shawn, Philip Johnson (1983), Senator Moynihan in 1992, and for the revival of Tribeca, Robert DeNiro and Margot Gayle in 1997 and (dare we say it?) Robert Moses in 1959.

But the magic of the evening comes in our steadfast and stubborn refusal to hold the event in a hotel ballroom. We pick, every year, a place in New York that is architecturally or historically fascinating. We’ve held the event on an empty floor of the Raymond Hood’s 1931 Art Deco masterpiece, the McGraw Hill building, with candlelight and stunning views. Or, how about our 2001 dinner at Gordon Bunschaft’s late Modernist skyscraper Lever House? Or, in 2006 at the-then partially restored, but still magnificently decorated, Park Avenue Armory.

This year is no exception. This Tuesday evening, MAS supporters will enjoy cocktails at the Four Seasons, then dine under a clear tent on the plaza of the extraordinary Seagram Building which celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year. Continue Reading>>

Margot Gayle, who died at her home on the Upper East Side on September 28 at the age of 100, was an active member of MAS for 61 years. She never understood inactive. As newsletter editor, trustee, chair of dozens of committees (several, now venerable organizations) and finally recipient of the Society’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis medal, Margot earned the right to relax. But the energy and spirit that saved threatened treasures from the Alice Austen House in Staten Island, to the Old Sun Clock in Lower Manhattan, to the Bogardus Fire Tower in Harlem kept her advocacy going right to the end.

Before we had mayors who cared, she practically swept up City Hall, saved the Art Commission from extinction, and helped the Landmarks Preservation Commission become independent. Perhaps Margot’s most notable achievement is the 1973 creation of the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District – earning her the moniker “Queen of Cast-Iron Architecture”. According to former MAS President Brendan Sexton, ‘’Margot Gayle is the only reason we have a SoHo. The only person who comes close or who shares with Margot that honor is Jane Jacobs… Margot turned her eye on the cast-iron district and it appeared like magic.’’ In fact, it is hard to imagine what New York might have become without her. Continue Reading>>

At the Annual Benefit on November 11, with great pride and shared gratitude, MAS will present its highest honor to our President Kent Barwick who, after almost 40 years of service, steps down as president of MAS at year end.

Kent Barwick has been the soul of the Municipal Art Society for almost four decades, leading the charge to save Grand Central, Radio City Music Hall, Lever House, St. Bartholomew’s Church, to name just a few of his accomplishments. In some of his boldest strokes, Kent stopped the plan for a massive tower that would have cast shadows across Central Park, and prevented a potentially disastrous rezoning of Times Square that would have extinguished its celebrated bright lights. He is an outspoken and passionate advocate for a magnificent new Moynihan Station, for a revitalized waterfront and, most importantly, for engaging citizens in the shaping of their city. Continue Reading>>

At the Annual Benefit on November 11, with great pride and shared gratitude, MAS will present its highest honor to our President Kent Barwick who, after almost 40 years of service, steps down as president of MAS at year end.

Kent has been the soul of the Municipal Art Society for almost four decades, leading the charge to save Grand Central, Radio City Music Hall, and Lever House, stopping the creation of a massive tower that would cast shadows across Central Park, building a magnificent new Moynihan Station, preventing a rezoning of Times Square that would have eliminated its world-famous bright lights, revitalizing the waterfront, and hundreds of other projects. In short, New York is the greatest city on earth, and Kent Barwick has been its keeper. Continue Reading>>

MAS announced the winners of its Annual Awards honoring individuals and groups that help define what makes New York City great at the MAS annual meeting on Wednesday, July 9. Held at TheTimesCenter, the 2008 MAS Annual Award-winners are: the City’s 311 Customer Service Center; José the Beaver, the first seen in New York since colonial days and a clear symbol of New York city’s improving urban environment; the Long Island City Cultural Alliance; American Ballroom Theater’s Dancing Classrooms; and Solar One Environmental Center. Continue Reading>>

On December 10, 2007, the Municipal Art Society awarded its highest honor – the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal – to Wade F.B. Thompson and Elihu Rose in recognition of their outstanding efforts in saving and restoring the historic Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue.

Today, the organization they formed in 1993, the Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy, is restoring and revitalizing the armory to allow full public access to one of the most important collections of 19th century interiors in the city.

To watch a slideshow of the event, click here.

In honor of their outstanding contributions to New York City’s natural and built environment, the board of directors of the MAS has presented the 2006 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal to philanthropists and civic leaders Janet and Arthur Ross. The award ceremony took place at the MAS Annual Dinner on Tuesday, October 24 in the magnificent Art Deco lobby of Eleven Madison Avenue.

Janet and Arthur Ross have invested their energy, spirit and resources in an extraordinary number of projects in New York, and each one has made the city more beautiful, more livable and more admired. From Central Park’s Pinetum to neighborhood parks in all five boroughs to their support for architects, scholars and artists who sustain the classical tradition, the Rosses have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the city.

The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal is presented annually to an individual or organization whose work and deeds have made an outstanding contribution to the city of New York. The medal was named for Mrs. Onassis, an MAS board member, in 1994 in honor of her tireless efforts to preserve and protect New York’s great architecture.