Today, AIA|DC announced The Sarah Booth Conroy Prize for Journalism and Architectural Criticism to reward excellent reporting of architecture and urbanism in Washington, D.C. AIA|DC hopes to raise the the city’s status as a design city by honoring journalists who foster a better public understanding of the area’s urban environment.
“Washington DC is at or near the top in nearly every recent survey regarding growing cities, cities with improving quality of life and green architecture,” said Mary Fitch, executive director of the Washington, D.C. chapter in a press release.
AIA|DC will be accepting applications until Dec. 31, 2015. The annual prize amount is set at $5,000. Entries must be for work published in print, online, or broadcast during 2014 and 2015 by United States journalists. Journalists may submit their own pieces, or may be nominated by others, but pieces must be submitted on behalf of the journalist and not an organization. Journalists may apply jointly with another journalist for collective pieces.
A reporter for the Washington Post, Sarah Booth Conroy covered Washington, D.C. architecture and history for more than 30 years. Conroy was the first winner of the Glenn Brown Award, given by the chapter and the Washington Architectural Foundation to an individual who has raised awareness of architecture and its benefits to society. Conroy wrote over 2,800 articles for the Washington Post, and received and honorary member in the American Institute of Architects for her articles on design and architecture. She was born Feb. 16, 1927, in Valdosta, Ga., and passed in 2009 in Potomac, Md.