Coinciding with World Architecture Day, the Library of Congress and the National Park Service (NPS) have announced the 2018 recipients of Leicester B. Holland Prize; honoring historic building, structure or landscape drawing.
A survey drawing of Daniel Chester French’s studio, by the team of Tenzin Nyandak and Grace Meloy, and led by Ashley Wilson of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is the 2018 Holland Prize winner. French, the 19th-century American sculptor, is known for his design of the Sitting Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. His studio, known as Meadowlark, is located at Chesterwood, French’s summer estate in Stockbridge, Mass.
“Chesterwood has become a significant historic site to commemorate the work of Daniel Chester French,” says Robert Arzola, architect and project manager at NPS’s Historic American Buildings Survey. “The work of these students truly reinforces the contribution French made to American art.”
Honorable mention is given to a survey drawing of the DeMarco House, created by the student team of Stephan Umierski and Dylan Sylvestor, advised by Professor Gregory Herman of the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. The house, designed by architect Fay Jones, is notable for Jones’ rotating and overlapping geometries, which are not usually seen in his work.
The Leicester B. Holland Prize recognizes the best single-sheet, measured drawing of a historic building, site or structure prepared to the standards of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) or the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). It is an annual competition administered by the Heritage Documentation Programs of the National Park Service. The jury for the competition recommends winners to a special program, the Center for Architecture, Design and Engineering in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, which supports the prize through the Paul Rudolph Trust. For information on how to participate in the Holland Prize competition, visit the National Park Service official contest website.
The Holland Prize is intended to increase awareness, knowledge and appreciation of historic sites, structures and landscapes throughout the U.S., and to encourage the submission of drawings by professionals and students. All the drawings accepted for the competition will be added to the permanent HABS, HAER and HALS Collection in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Images of Holland Prize drawings can be found at this Library website.
The prize honors Leicester B. Holland (1882-1952), who was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA); chairman of the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on Historic Buildings; head of the Fine Arts Division of the Library of Congress and first curator of the HABS collection; a co-founder of the HABS program in the 1930s; and the first chair of the HABS Advisory Board.
The Center for Architecture, Design and Engineering is a program in the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. It was established by a bequest from the American architect Paul Rudolph, who was a proponent of the art of architectural drawing. The program sponsors activities and publications to engage the public with the collections from the library. For more information, visit online.
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