Article by Laura Spinner
Photo by Margaret Long
The CUAA Awards Ceremony was held on February 8th in the Rose Auditorium in tandem with Cooper Together to celebrate Peter Cooper’s Birthday. The 2024 Founder’s Days Awards were presented to the following alumni (click on the link to learn more about each honoree). The Gano Dunn Award for professional achievement in engineering, industry, science or finance was presented to Barry Rosenbaum ChE’63. The Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award for professional achievement in art was presented to Ann Agee A’81 The John Q. Hejduk Award for outstanding contribution to the theory, teaching and/or practice of architecture was presented to Catherine Seavitt Nordenson AR’94. The Peter Cooper Public Service Award for an alumnus of The Cooper Union who best exemplifies Peter Cooper’s life of service to the public was presented to Shigeru Ban AR’84 and Dean Maltz AR’84.
In addition to the professional awards the CUAA honored an alumnus and a young alumnus for their longstanding dedication and commitment to the Cooper Union Alumni Association and The Cooper Union. Laura Spinner A’90 was honored with Alum of the Year and Standish Lee AR’11 with the honor of Young Alum of the Year.
Each professional award recipient spoke about their work and the trajectory of their career, illustrating their talk with a PowerPoint presentation. Despite a few glitches with the wiring, this did not detract from the inspiring stories presented by the honorees. One of the distinctive points about the ceremony is it gives a broad overview of the diverse education and the multifarious paths of its outstanding alumni. It is truly a humbling experience to listen and see the body of work of each of the awardees.
A reception was held immediately following the ceremony. Light bites, wine, soft drinks and Cooper Brue, Cooper’s very own beer brewed by Professor Sam Keene and students, was served to the crowd. Student groups presented in LL101, and the Menschell exhibit was on display in the 41 Cooper Gallery.
It was an evening that brought the best of the Cooper Union together.