Universal Access Architecture Competition - Competition

Preston Scott Cohen
Professor of Architecture,
Harvard Graduate School of Design

Preston Scott Cohen is a Professor of Architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He is the author of Contested Symmetries and Other Predicaments in Architecture, and a forthcoming publication, Permutations of Descriptive Geometry. Among his most acclaimed projects are the Montague House, Torus House and short list proposals for the Temporary MoMA and the Museum of Art and Technology in New York. He was one of four representing the US in "Emerging Voices" at the Venice Biennale International Exhibition of Architecture in 1996. Cohen's work has been widely exhibited and published internationally and is in the collections of several museums including The Museum of Modern Art in New York and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Samuel Flowers
Chief Executive Officer,
H.I.C.A., Inc.

Samuel Flowers has been a community resident and leader of North Lawndale for over 50 years. The founder and chief executive officer of H.I.C.A., Inc., a not-for-profit which aims to reverse the shortcomings of the neighborhood since 1968, Sam has worked toward creating child development and job training centers. Mr. Flowers also serves on the board of directors of the Lawndale Business and Local Development Corporation and the Pyramid West Development Corporation, two corporations leading the way for broader affordable housing opportunities in the community. Examples of such development range from the rehabilitation of 158 subsidized housing units at Laverne Courts in north Austin to the HUD Property Disposition and the Housing Abandonment Prevention Programs which identify buildings which could possibly be saved from demolition and returned to the available housing stock. H.I.C.A. is currently developing Liberty Square, a New Homes for Chicago development which will provide 77 affordable rental and homeownership opportunities for local residents.

David K. Hanson
Commissioner,
Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities

Prior to his appointment as Commissioner of the Chicago Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), by Mayor Richard M. Daley in December, 2000, Commissioner Hanson was already recognized as one of the Midwest's leading authorities on accessible housing and architectural design. Hanson joined MOPD in April, 1992 as an advisor and consultant on disability related legislation. In May, 1993 Hanson was promoted to founding Director of the MOPD Architectural Services Unit which he developed into a model for other cities to follow. Under Hanson's leadership, the Architectural Services Unit led the way to create Chicago's unique "accessibility review" requiring builders and developers to demonstrate that they meet all accessibility guidelines before city permits are issued. Prior to his service at MOPD, Hanson was the Joint Enforcement Disability Access and Technical Assistance Coordinator at the Progress Center for Independent Living in Oak Park.

Ralph Lerner FAIA
Dean and Professor of Architecture, Princeton University

Ralph Lerner is the Dean and George Dutton '27 Professor of Architecture at Princeton University's School of Architecture. Founded in 1987, Ralph Lerner Architect PC has been awarded numerous international design commendations, including three Progressive Architecture Awards and three Architectural Design Awards. Recent projects include the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi, India, which is a vast urban complex of facilities for research, conservation, performing and visual arts. Dean Lerner currently serves as director of the CCA Prize Competition for the Design of Cities.

Stanley Tigerman FAIA
Tigerman McCurry Architects

A principal in the Chicago architectural firm of Tigerman McCurry, Stanley Tigerman has designed numerous buildings and installations and given more than 725 lectures throughout the world. He has been a visiting chaired professor at Yale and Harvard Universities, and he was Director of the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago for eight years. He is Co-Founder and Director of ARCHEWORKS, a socially oriented design laboratory and school established in 1994. Mr. Tigerman authored four critically acclaimed Rizzoli books and has been published internationally. He was a founding member of The Chicago Seven and was a resident architect at the American Academy in Rome. The International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers honored Stanley with the Louis Sullivan Award in 2000.