Michael Eisner and The Walt Disney Co. to be Honored for Visionary Architectural Patronage

Michael Eisner and The Walt Disney Co. to be Honored for Visionary Architectural Patronage
National Building Museum to Host a Gala Celebration on April 5 in Washington, D.C.

Carolyn Schwenker Brody, chair of the board of trustees, and Susan Henshaw Jones, president, today announced that the National Building Museum will present its prestigious annual Honor Award in 2001 to Michael D. Eisner and The Walt Disney Co.

Eisner, chairman of Disney since 1984 and widely celebrated as one of the nation's most passionate patrons of architecture, will accept the award before an audience of hundreds of cultural, corporate and political leaders, as well as many internationally renowned architects and designers. The festive black-tie gala will be held on Thursday evening, April 5, beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the landmark Great Hall of the National Building Museum on F Street in Washington, D.C. The evening will benefit exhibition and education programs of the National Building Museum, the only public institution in America devoted exclusively to examining and interpreting American achievements in building.

"Michael Eisner has led The Walt Disney Company in its ongoing commitment to exceptional architecture and urban planning with a distinctively American character," said museum president Jones. "The National Building Museum is privileged to salute Disney for consistently dynamic buildings and thoughtful environments that not only entertain, but bring people together and encourage learning at every level. Both Mr. Eisner and Disney are global standard bearers."

"This is an extraordinary honor," Eisner said. "I have always believed that there is a certain level of responsibility that accompanies the creation of buildings and public spaces. We can merely construct the obvious and the bland, or we can strive for innovation and excitement. At Disney, we have always attempted the latter course, and it is very gratifying to see the architectural efforts of our company being recognized by our nation's preeminent architectural museum."

Bestowed annually since 1986, the National Building Museum's Honor Award recognizes outstanding individuals and companies who have enhanced public life for American citizens through significant contributions in the fields of architecture, planning and building. This year's Honor Award will be given to Eisner and The Walt Disney Co. in recognition of their unique impact on international culture through innovative architecture and planning projects commissioned from some of the world's most significant designers. In claiming the award, Eisner and Disney join such celebrated past recipients as the Rockefeller and Pritzker families, the IBM Corp., United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former National Gallery director J. Carter Brown, and Lady Bird Johnson, among others.

From Disneyland to Times Square

Under Eisner's leadership, The Walt Disney Co. has reinforced and expanded a history of important environmental design that dates back to the 1940s. Over the past sixteen years, beginning with the fantasy-style Walt Disney World Dolphin and Swan hotels in Florida, Disney has commissioned more than 80 buildings from some of the world's most acclaimed architects, including Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Arata Isozaki and Robert A.M. Stern. The 2001 Honor Award will celebrate his contribution, as well as the company's role in inventing some of America's most beloved and powerfully symbolic structures, from the Sleeping Beauty Castle that since 1955 has stood as the centerpiece of the original Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., to the Spaceship Earth geosphere at EPCOT Center, constructed in 1982.

The Honor Award pays equal tribute to Disney's daring initiatives in the areas of community planning and urban restoration. In 1993, the company embarked upon a project widely credited with helping to catalyze the remarkable renewal of New York City's famous Times Square district: the rescue and restoration of the abandoned New Amsterdam Theater on West 42nd Street. A designated landmark that once housed the legendary Ziegfeld Follies and contains the most important Art Nouveau interiors in America, the New Amsterdam is once again the thriving home of live theater as a result of the efforts of Eisner and his colleagues. As a dramatic counterpoint, the restoration of the New Amsterdam Theater stimulated a new $300 million hotel and entertainment complex being developed by Tishman Realty and Construction at the opposite end of West 42nd Street.

In contrast to this urban experiment at the heart of the "Crossroads of the World," the planned town of Celebration, Fla., represents Disney's commitment to ideals of harmonious living and accessible design. An experimental community in central Florida, Celebration is an example of the movement known as New Urbanism; its houses, shops, offices, parks and school facilities are all within walking distance of each other, and a carefully delineated aesthetic code has been developed and applied to create a sense of calm and order for residents. While such projects have generated healthy debate among critics, Disney earns accolades for the boldness of its vision in this as in other initiatives.

The April Gala

The April 5 Honor Award ceremony and gala black-tie dinner will be held amidst the magnificent colonnades of the National Building Museum's Great Hall. Renowned architects Frank Gehry and Robert A.M. Stern, past Honor Award recipients Gerald D. Hines and Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr., and technology leader Michael J. Saylor, will serve as chairs of the Leadership Committee for the 2001 Honor Award dinner. The National Building Museum is pleased to have the support of The Walt Disney Co. and The Hearst Corp. at the benefactor sponsorship level.

Sponsorship and tables for ten may be purchased for $50,000 (Benefactor), $25,000 (Patron), $10,000 (Sponsor), $6,000 (Fellow), and $3,000 (Friend). Single tickets are available for $600 (Preferred Seating) and $300. For more information about ticket purchase for the dinner, contact Lisanna Novey, manager of development events, at 202/272-2448, ext. 3454, or via e-mail at [email protected].

The National Building Museum, created by an act of Congress in 1980, is a private, non-profit institution that examines and interprets American achievements in building through exhibitions, educational programs and publications. The Architecture of Reassurance: Designing the Disney Theme Parks, an exhibition exploring the evolution of the parks themselves, will be on view from March 17 through Aug. 5, 2001. The Architecture of Reassurance was organized by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. The Museum is currently developing a permanent exhibition, Building America, conceived to explore the achievements and qualities that are quintessentially American in our built environment. The museum is located at 401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C., at the entrance to the Judiciary Square Metro station on the Red Line. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Museum Shop and Cafe. Public Inquiries: 202/272-2448 or www.nbm.org.

-- Posted April 3, 2001

Source: National Building Museum press release