Cooper Hewitt Announces Winners of the 17th Annual National Design Awards

NEW YORK, May 5, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Director Caroline Baumann announced the winners of the 2016 National Design Awards, recognizing excellence and innovation across a variety of disciplines in 11 categories. Now in its 17th year, the annual awards were established to promote design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world. The award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden at Cooper Hewitt.

This year's recipients are Moshe Safdie for Lifetime Achievement; Make It Right for Director's Award; Bruce Mau for Design Mind; Center for Urban Pedagogy for Corporate & Institutional Achievement; Marlon Blackwell Architects for Architecture Design; Geoff McFetridge for Communication Design; Opening Ceremony for Fashion Design; Tellart for Interaction Design; Studio O+A for Interior Design; Hargreaves Associates for Landscape Architecture; and Ammunition for Product Design.

"The National Design Awards are a vibrant component of Cooper Hewitt's education arm through which the museum engages year round with design lovers of all ages across the United States and throughout the world," Baumann said. "This year's class of winners reflect design's remarkable empathy for contemporary social concerns: from promoting workplace productivity to preserving vernacular traditions to encouraging civic engagement. These designers and design firms cross disciplinary boundaries, explore innovative materials and develop new models of problem-solving in pursuit of these goals."

First Lady Michelle Obama serves as the Honorary Patron for this year's National Design Awards, which was first launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council.

A jury of design leaders and educators from across the country reviewed submissions resulting from nominations submitted by the general public. Winners are selected based on the level of excellence, innovation and public impact of their body of work. Unlike the jury-selected awards, the Director's Award is chosen by Baumann and given to an individual or organization in recognition of outstanding support and patronage within the design community.

National Design Awards programming is made possible by major support from Target.

National Design Award trophies are created by The Corning Museum of Glass. ndagallery.cooperhewitt.org is powered by Behance, part of the Adobe family. Media sponsorship is provided by Smithsonian Media.  

SOURCE Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

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