August 10, 2021
Recorded on July 21, 2021. Video shot and edited by Quinn Ryan
On July 21, 2021, Architectural League President Paul Lewis presented the 2021 President’s Medal to Walter Hood, creative director and founder of Hood Design Studio. The President’s Medal is The Architectural League’s highest honor and is bestowed, at the discretion of the League’s President and Board of Directors, on individuals to recognize extraordinary achievements in architecture, urbanism, art, design, and the environment.
The Medal was presented at an open-air celebration in Marcus Garvey Park. Mabel O. Wilson, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University; Mario Gooden, founding principal of Huff + Gooden Architects and professor of professional practice at Columbia University; Sara Zewde, founding principal of Studio Zewde; Lewis and Rosalie Genevro, League Executive Director, celebrated Hood with remarks.
The festivities included a procession from the Acropolis in the park to the lower level. The event featured performances by Mfouambila Kongo Dance Company, The Marching Cobras of New York, and saxophonist Jason Marshall; a poetry reading by Tonya M. Foster.
The event took place in a production and installation design by Harlem-based architecture studio BRANDT : HAFERD, Jerome W. Haferd and K. Brandt Knapp, with Coleman Downing.