2012 CUAA Awards

The 2012 Alumni Awardees were honored on February 6 at the annual Founder's Day celebration.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award for Art

Carin Goldberg (A'75) is a graphic designer, publication designer, educator and brand consultant. After graduating from The Cooper Union, she worked as a staff designer at CBS Television, CBS Records and Atlantic Records before establishing her firm, Carin Goldberg Design, in 1982. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in China. From November 2010 to January 2011, a retrospective of her work and career was exhibited at Musée Géo-Charles as a part of Centre Du Graphisme design festival in Echirolles, France. She is one of the first recipients of the Art Directors Club Grandmasters Award for Excellence in Education, which she was honored with in 2008. Among her awards are a Silver Medal from the Art Directors Club, the Literary Marketplace Award and the 2009 American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Gold Medal. In 2008 Carin completed a two-year term as president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. She also served on the chapter’s board from 2002 to 2004. She has been a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale since 1999 and served on its board of directors from 2006 to 2009. In 2009, she received the President’s Citation from The Cooper Union.

John Q. Hejduk Award for Architecture

Lee H. Skolnick, FAIA, (AR’79) is Founder, Principal of Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership. He has served on advisory and grant evaluation panels for both the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council of the Arts, among others. Skolnick sits on the boards of various arts and design organizations, is Chairman of Architecture Omi, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Exhibitionist magazine. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester in the UK, and is the author of scholarly papers and books, including What is Exhibition Design?. Skolnick has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Cooper Union, New York University and the Bank Street College of Education, and lectures internationally. His design work has been widely published and has received many awards of excellence, including the “AD 100 Architects” by Architectural Digest and local, state and national AIA Honor Awards. In addition to designing museums, residences, schools, places of worship, exhibitions and a wide range of other architectural projects, he has created numerous museum education programs, teaching kits and curriculum materials for schools in New York and throughout the United States. In bringing New York City’s architectural and cultural heritage to its children, he has conducted symposiums, workshops and provided teacher training for some of New York’s top educational and cultural organizations. Lee designed the exhibition, Advancing the Mission: The Cooper Union at 150 as part of the Great Hall renovation. In 2006, he received the President's Citation from The Cooper Union.

Ralph Lerner (AR’74), FAIA, HKIA, taught at Princeton, Harvard, the University of Westminster, Polytechnic of Central London and the University of Virginia. At Princeton, he joined the faculty in 1984 and served as the Dean of the School of Architecture from 1989 to 2002. He transferred to emeritus status in 2008. In 2006, he became Dean and Chair Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Lerner received five Progressive Architecture Awards, including a First Award for the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi, India and a PA Citation for the Lower Manhattan Financial District Plan. In 1990, he was honored with the President’s Citation from The Cooper Union. Ralph Lerner passed away on May 7, 2011.

Gano Dunn Award for Engineering

Morton Lippmann (ChE'54) is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine. He is a leader in the fields of human exposure assessment and air pollution health effects, and has authored or co-authored more than 330 research articles. He served as the lead author of two books on effects of environmental chemical and physical exposures and their health effects. His honors include the American Association of Aerosol Research's David Sinclair Award, the American Industrial Hygiene Association's Donald E. Cummings Memorial Award, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' Herbert E. Stokinger and Meritorious Achievement Awards and a Society of Toxicology Career Achievement Award.

Alumnus of the Year

John Leeper (AR’85) is currently the Project Executive for the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse Renovation Project. He is Senior Vice President at Lend Lease (US) Construction LMB Inc. Prior to that project, he was the Project Director of the National September 11 Memorial Project. John was also the Project Executive of the Fulton Street Transit Center and of the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. He has taught the Construction Management course in the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. He served as CUAA Secretary/Treasurer and on the Editorial and John Q. Hejduk Award committees. He co-chaired the 2006 Founder’s Day Dinner Dance. John participates in Phonathon and Engineering Career Evening and is one half of a Cooper Couple with Gilly Youner (A’82).