The architecture writer, Inga Saffron, won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize.
15/04/2014.
[VIDEO] by TEDxPhilly.
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA.
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The 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner for her criticism of architecture is Inga Saffron of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Inga Saffron, portrait. Photography © Gene Smirnov.
"expertise, civic passion and sheer readability into arguments that consistently stimulate and surprise." said the awards committee.
Saffron, who pens the "Changing Skyline" column, was previously a three-time finalist for the prize. The awards are American journalism's highest honor.
"It's nice to be honored by your colleagues, but you still have to go out and make the case for good planning and good urbanism," Saffron said. "There are still a lot of big battles to be fought in this city," she added.
Jury citation.- For distinguished criticism, using any available journalistic tool, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000). Awarded to Inga Saffron of The Philadelphia Inquirer for her criticism of architecture that blends expertise, civic passion and sheer readability into arguments that consistently stimulate and surprise.
"Skyscrapers may be in vogue among architects and financiers as the prominent path to urban innovation, but city officials should look to less ornamental means to make an impact", Saffron speaking at the TEDxPhilly conference.
Jury. The 2014 Pulitzer Prize Winners. Criticism.
Alisa Solomon, professor, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University (Chair)
Johanna Keller, director, Goldring Arts Journalism Program, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication, Syracuse University
Debra Leithauser, publisher, Centre Daily Times, State College, PA
Michael Phillips, film critic, Chicago Tribune
Jeff Weinstein, critic, Artsjournal.com
Finalists
Also nominated as finalists in this category were Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times for her trenchant and witty television criticism, engaging readers through essays and reviews that feature a conversational style and the force of fresh ideas; and Jen Graves of The Stranger, a Seattle weekly, for her visual arts criticism that, with elegant and vivid description, informs readers about how to look at the complexities of contemporary art and the world in which it's made.
More information
INGA SAFFRON
Inga Saffron writes about architecture, design and planning issues for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her popular column, "Changing Skyline" has been appearing on Fridays in the paper’s Home & Design section since 1999. In 2012, she completed a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize three times, in 2004, 2008, and 2009, and in 2010 received the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award.
Pushing beyond the usual boundaries of architectural criticism, her columns focus on the buildings and public spaces that Philadelphians encounter in their daily lives. Saffron applies a reporter's skills and sensibility to explore the variety of forces - political, financial, cultural ¬- that shape the city. Her columns on waterfront development, zoning and parking issues have led to significant changes in city policy. This year, Saffron launched Built, an innovative new web page that allows her to curate Inquirer stories on architecture, development and transportation. By packaging this related content together and updating it daily, Saffron has focused attention on a group of inter-connected issues that are crucial to Philadelphia’s future.
Before assuming her current position, Saffron spent five years as a correspondent in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union for The Inquirer. She covered wars in the former Yugoslavia and in Chechnya, and witnessed the destruction of Sarajevo and Grozny. It was in part because of those experiences that she became interested in the fate of cities and began writing about architecture.
Saffron began her journalism career as a magazine writer in Ireland and worked for the Courier-News in Plainfield, N.J., before joining The Inquirer in 1985 as a suburban reporter. She is the author of "Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World's Most Coveted Delicacy," published by Broadway Books in 2002. She lives with her family in Philadelphia.
