Presidential Millennium Awards for Design Excellence AnnouncedSpecial Awards to Honor Century of Design

GSA #9535

November 23, 1998
Contact: April Kaufman
202/501-1231

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Presidential Millennium Awards for Design Excellence were announced at the Call for Entries Briefing for the Presidential Design Awards 2000 to acknowledge projects completed in the 20th century that have made significant contributions to improving the social, cultural, or economic quality of life in the United States.

Special Assistant to the President and Advisor to the First Lady on the Millennium, Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, discussed the Presidential Millennium Awards for Design Excellence at the briefing last week at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). Ms. McCulloch-Lovell noted that anyone may submit a nomination for the millennium awards.

The millennium awards are different from the Presidential Design Awards, which are presented every four years to encourage and recognize the design successes of Federal agencies and honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Federal design.

"The Federal government has always set high standards for design," said Vincent Scully, Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Yale University, and chair of the Presidential Design Awards jury. "I am proud to be involved with a program that encourages design excellence in so many different areas that effect our daily lives."

The Presidential Design Awards, established in 1983, are administered by GSA and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Both GSA Administrator David J. Barram and NEA Chairman William Ivey spoke at the briefing. Administrator Barram said that "the Presidential Design Awards recognize not just aesthetics and beauty, but innovative function and performance. Ultimately, various forms of design touch all citizens and influence their relationship with government."

The Presidential Design Awards recognize Federal design achievement in both design products and design activities. Awards are given in the areas of architecture, engineering, graphic design, historic preservation, interior design, landscape architecture, industrial and product design, and urban design and planning. Past awards have been given to projects such as the Byron White U.S. Courthouse, Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, Food and Drug Administration food label, Veterans' Administration prosthetic foot, and Linn Cove Viaduct of the Blue Ridge Parkway.