Fifth Annual Urban Visionaries Benefit Raises $800,000!

The Cooper Union's Fifth Annual Urban Visionaries Benefit raised $800,000 in support of full-tuition scholarships. The award dinner took place on Tuesday, June 12, 2007 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 45 noted artists, architects and designers.

This year's honorees—Constance Milstein (Urban Citizenship), Kara Walker (Visual Art), Santiago Calatrava (Architecture), Craig Nevill-Manning (Engineering) and Jennifer Lee (AR'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 Susan and François deMenil and Sandra Priest Rose.

[l to r, front] Dinner chair and Trustee Sandra Priest Rose, Constance Milstein (Urban Citizenship), President George Campbell Jr., Craig Nevill-Manning (Engineering), Trustee Dr. Ron W. Drucker (CE'62) and dinner chair Susan deMenil; [back] dinner chair and Trustee François deMenil, Santiago Calatrava (Architecture) (pictured here, his son Gabriel Calatrava, who accepted the award on behalf of his father), Jennifer Lee (AR'97) (Emerging Talent) and Kara Walker (Visual Art).