Sixth Annual Urban Visionaries Benefit Raises More Than $800,000!

The Cooper Union's Sixth Annual Urban Visionaries Benefit raised more than $800,000 in support of full-tuition scholarships. The award dinner took place on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 7 World Trade Center — a dramatic downtown space with spectacular 360-degree views of New York City. The evening got off to a great start with the opening of the Silent Art Auction featuring the work of 46 noted artists, architects and designers.

This year's honorees — Annie Leibovitz (Visual Art), David Childs (Architecture), Lloyd Trotter (Engineering), Richard Ravitch (Urban Citizenship) and Wangechi Mutu (A'97) (Emerging Talent) — represented the best of New York City's civic, art, architecture and science communities. The award presented to the honorees silhouettes the New York City skyline against a model of founder Peter Cooper's spectacles, laser-etched in crystal and mounted on stainless steel.

Congratulations and thanks for the huge success of this year's dinner go to dinner chairs Kevin Burke (EE'72), T.J. Gottesdiener (AR'79), Hedy Klineman (A'62), Kathleen Lacey and James Hoge and Marilyn Jordan Taylor.

(front row) Chairman of the Board of Trustees Ronald W. Drucker (CE'62), Urban Visionary—Visual Art awardee Annie Leibovitz and Urban Visionary—Architecture awardee David Childs; (middle row) Urban Visionary—Engineering awardee Lloyd G. Trotter, Dinner Chairs T.J. Gottesdiener (AR'79) and Hedy Klineman (A'62) and President George Campbell Jr.; (last row) Dinner Chair Kevin Burke (EE'72), Urban Visionary—Urban Citizenship awardee Richard Ravitch