Earlier this week, the Rockefeller Foundation presented the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medals to Richard Kahan, Founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, and Damaris Reyes, Executive Director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES). A ceremony in their honor was held at the new Thom Mayne-designed building at 41 Cooper Square.

The juried awards process is administered by the Municipal Art Society as part of MAS’s continuing collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation to celebrate the legacy of the pioneering writer and activist. The Medal is awarded to two individuals each year whose work creates new ways of seeing and understanding New York City, challenges traditional assumptions and creatively uses the urban environment to make New York City a place of hope and expectation. Previous medalists have included, Omar Freilla of Greenworker Cooperatives, Alexis Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Peggy Shepard of West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT), and Barry Benepe of the Greenmarket program. For more information about the Jane Jacobs Medal, visit www.mas.org/jane-jacobs-medal.