Launch of the annual Birmingham Jane Jacobs Award
Birmingham is “a great, confused laboratory of ideas”
Jane Jacobs – The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Earlier this week, (Saturday 03 May), saw Sir Andy Street CBE, our Chair of the Board of Trustees, launch applications for a brand-new heritage award, the Birmingham Jane Jacobs Award. The sold out launch, held here at The Rep, followed the first annual Birmingham Jane Jacobs Walk.
The Birmingham Jane Jacobs Award celebrates a woman/women who are encouraging fuller public participation and more informed debate in the city about heritage, climate, housing, and public good. It has been set up by the Save Smallbrook campaign group but is endorsed by a much wider group, including the Royal Institute of Building Architects – WM, Birmingham Architecture Association, Birmingham City University, Zero Carbon House, Don’t Waste Buildings, Twentieth Century Society, Birmingham Modernists and Brutiful Birmingham.
This launch marks Birmingham as the first city in the country to set up such an award and to organise an annual walk in Jane Jacobs‘ name.
Photography by James Stove
Photography by James Stove
Sir Andy Street highlighted that Jacobs, a campaigner in 1960’s New York, had visited Birmingham in the late 1960’s and commented that:
“She considered Birmingham a ‘great, confused laboratory of ideas,’ highlighting its unique mix of architectural styles and unplanned growth”
The walk that took in buildings both under threat of demolition and examples of those have been saved from the C19th to the late C20th including the Grand Hotel (1895) and the Birmingham Signal Box (1965), highlighting how Birmingham, despite not adhering to strict modernist urban planning principles, embodies many of the qualities Jacobs valued in vibrant and successful cities. The Birmingham Jane Jacobs Award seeks to ensure that our heritage and the livelihoods of our citizens are protected.
Mary Keating, of Brutiful Birmingham, adds:
The award will celebrate pioneering Birmingham women who encourage fuller public participation and more informed debate in the city about heritage, climate, housing and public good. “
The form to submit your nominations for the award can be found below:
– Applications close on the Fri 30th May.
– Judging will take place the week of the Mon 2nd Jun.
– The award will be presented at the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design Graduate Show on Wed 11th Jun.