Master Builders' Award Gala to be held September 6, 2008
The Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia's bi-annual Gala will be held this year on September 6th at Citizens Bank Park. We will be honoring the Community Design Collaborative as our Master Builder Award recipient.
Past recipients of this award have included Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity International; city planner Edmund Bacon; preservation architect Charles Peterson; music mogul and developer Kenneth Gamble; developer Willard Rouse III; builder Walter Palmer, Jr.; architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown; and engineer Nicholas Gianopulos.
The Community Design Collaborative is a community design center that provides nonprofit organizations access to pro bono preliminary design services, offers unique volunteer opportunities for design professionals, and raises awareness about the importance of design in community revitalization. The Community Design Collaborative began in 1991 as a special initiative of AIA Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Created by a handful of volunteers, the Collaborative has grown into a healthy organization with an active, multi-disciplinary board, a staff, and a volunteer base of over 300 design professionals. The Collaborative was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1995 and became a 501(c) 3 nonprofit corporation in 1996.
The Gala is designed as a celebration of not only distinguished members of our community but also of all Masters of the Philadelphia construction industry who have developed and built this magnificent city as well as others around the United States and the world. Four hundred and fifty guests from the design and construction related industries are expected. Upon arrival at the Park's VIP Entrance, the evening will begin with a cocktail reception on the main concourse overlooking the field. The award ceremony will take place behind home plate and then we will retire to the Diamond Club behind home plate for a buffet dinner and enjoyment of the venue overlooking the ballpark from the seats behind home. As the Phillies are away that weekend there will be tours of the clubhouse, locker room, indoor practice facilities, and dugout. The menu is ballpark fare and sponsors will be featured on the scoreboards throughout the evening.
Sponsorship opportunities are available and individual tickets are $300. The Gala proceeds will benefit the Community Design Collaborative and The Carpenters' Company Scholarship and Endowment for Preservation Funds.
Begun in 1724, The Carpenters' Company is the oldest extant trade guild in America. Its founding vision was to provide the master builders of the Philadelphia area with training in the architectural disciplines at a time when structural innovation in design was mostly by trial and error. There have been approximately 800 members elected to The Carpenters' Company since 1724. One of the Company's main purposes today is to maintain Carpenters' Hall, considered by some to be the most historic building in Philadelphia. # # #
Contact Christy Thompson, The Carpenters' Company, 215.925.0167, christythompson@carpentershall.com, www.carpentershall.com
