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.

The winner of the 2020 Brendan Gill Prize is composer Julia Wolfe for her magnificent oratorio, Fire in my mouth, a hauntingly beautiful retelling of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

The 2020 Brendan Gill Prize jury also elected to honor four writers—all finalists for the Gill Prize—with special designation:

• Contested City: Art & Public History as Mediation at New York’s Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, by Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani
• Brooklyn: The Once and Future City, by Thomas J. Campanella
• CODEX New York; Typologies of the City, by photographer Stanley Greenberg
• Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal, by Eric K. Washington

The postponed 2020 Brendan Gill Prize Ceremony was held on September 14, 2021, at the newly-restored Concert Grove Pavilion in Prospect Park.

Established in 2001, the MASterworks Awards pay tribute each year to projects that make a significant contribution to New York City’s built environment. Selected each year by an esteemed jury, past honored projects have included some of the city’s most iconic buildings to its hidden gems, such as the likes of Roberto Clemente State Park, Sunset Park Interim Library, Weeksville Heritage Center, Pier 35, Manhattan District 1/2/5 Garage & Salt Shed, McCarren Pool and Bathhouse, Queens Museum, and many more.

Please join MAS in congratulating the following projects selected for 2021 MASterworks Awards, and view a special digital tribute to this year’s winners by clicking here.

As a part of Archtober and NYCxDESIGN, MAS has also curated a selection of in person explorations and online in-conversations with this year’s honored projects. Check mas.org/events for a list of upcoming MASterworks programs

• Best New Building: Amant. For outstanding architectural design
• Best Urban Landscape: Pier 26 at Hudson River Park. For a new or revitalized open space that contributes to livability and resilience
• Best Restoration: Endale Arch. For a project that expertly enhances the original qualities of a significant historic building or structure
• Best Adaptive Reuse: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. For a project that demonstrates exceptional creativity in adaptive reuse of an existing building or structure
• Best New Infrastructure: LaGuardia Terminal B Arrivals & Departures Hall. For distinctive design in public service projects
• Best New Urban Amenity: Newtown Creek Nature Walk. For an addition to the built environment that contributes to a more livable city.

The jury also chose to give special recognition to the following projects that responded creatively and thoughtfully to New York’s challenges in 2020: NYC Open Streets and Neighborhoods Now: Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.

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.