Awards + Medals

The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (JKO) Medal is awarded annually to individuals and organizations that have made an extraordinary impact on the quality of New York’s built environment. The award was established in 1994 to honor Mrs. Kennedy Onassis and her passionate efforts to preserve great architecture in New York City.

The Brendan Gill Prize is given each year to the creator of a specific work—a book, essay, musical composition, play, painting, sculpture, architectural design, film, or choreographic piece—that best captures the spirit and energy of New York City.

The prize was established in 1987 in honor of Brendan Gill by friend and fellow MAS board member Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis along with board members Helen Tucker and Margot Wellington.

MAS invites the public to submit nominations for the 32nd annual Brendan Gill Prize. The Prize will be awarded to two honorees, covering works produced between 2020 and 2021. Honorees will be presented with their Prize during an in-person award ceremony to be hosted in September 2022. Special consideration will be given to works that have creatively responded to or were disrupted by the COVID-19 public health crisis.

The deadline for submissions for the 2022 Brendan Gill Prize was February 7, 2022. For questions, please contact events@mas.org.

Established in 2001, the MASterworks Awards pay tribute to projects completed in the previous year that exemplify excellence in architecture and urban design. From iconic buildings to hidden neighborhood gems, our list of past winners includes the likes of Weeksville Heritage Center, Manhattan District 1/2/5 Garage & Salt Shed, the Fulton Center, McCarren Pool and Bathhouse, the Tenement Museum, the TKTS Booth, El Barrio Bait Station, the High Bridge, and the Gowanus Canal Sponge Park.

The 2022 call for nominations is open now through Thursday, July 7. All nominated projects must be located in New York City and have been completed in 2021. Projects can be nominated in up to two of the following categories:

• Best New Building for outstanding architectural design
• Best Urban Landscape for a new or revitalized open space that contributes to livability and resilience
• Best Restoration for a project that expertly enhances the original qualities of a significant historic building or structure
• Best Adaptive Reuse for a project that demonstrates exceptional creativity in adaptive reuse of an existing building or structure
• Best New Infrastructure for distinctive design in public service projects
• Best New Urban Amenity for an addition to the built environment that contributes to a more livable city

Every year, MAS convenes an esteemed jury of architects, designers, preservationists, scholars, and critics to select the winners of the MASterworks Awards. Past jury members have included Justin Davidson, Architecture and Classical Music Critic, New York Magazine; Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG; Alexandra Lange, Architecture Critic, Curbed; Justin Garrett Moore, then-Executive Director, NYC Public Design Commission; Benjamin Prosky, Executive Director, AIA New York / Center for Architecture; and Rafael Viñoly, Rafael Viñoly Architects.

The 2022 MASterworks jury will be announced shortly. Winning projects will be honored this fall with a public program featuring in-person explorations of project sites and virtual conversations with project teams.

Nominate a MASterwork

The Jane Jacobs Medal is awarded annually to individuals whose work creates new ways of seeing and understanding New York City, challenges traditional assumptions, and creatively uses the urban environment to make New York City a place of hope and expectation. The Rockefeller Foundation awards the medal. It is administered by MAS through a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The award was created in 2007.