Cooper Union honors its Urban Visionaries

Real Estate Weekly, Dec 22, 2004

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art honored New York's leading artists, architects, engineers and urban citizens at its third annual Urban Visionaries benefit dinner on December 7 at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

The evening included a silent auction of small works by renowned artists and architects, followed by a seated dinner and performance by Bill Cosby.

Each of the Urban Visionaries has contributed professional energy, creativity and public service for the betterment of great cities of the world.

This year The Cooper Union celebrated the following honorees:

Christo & Jeanne-Claude: Visual Art. Creators of the most celebrated and controversial artworks in the world, the famous duo is currently working on a temporary work of art in New York City: The Gates, Central Park. Other outstanding pieces include "Valley Curtain," which stretched 1,250 feet across a valley in Rifle, Colorado; "The Umbrellas," which deployed 3,100 umbrellas in Japan and California; and "Wrapped Reichstag," where the entire German parliament was cloaked in shimmering fabric.

Daniel Libeskind: Architecture. Winner of the World Trade Center design competition, architect of the Jewish Museum in Berlin and commissioned to build additions to museums in London, Toronto, San Francisco, and Denver among many other cultural institutions. Libeskind is a Cooper Union alumnus, who graduated in 1970.

Ysrael Seinuk: Engineering. Chief executive of Cantor Seinuk, a New York-based engineering firm where he has engineered over 50 of the world's tallest buildings, numerous major hotels and hundreds of apartment structures including the Trump World Tower and 7 World Trade Center. For the past 35 years, he has taught at The Cooper Union's Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture.

Bill Cosby: Urban Citizenship. Internationally acclaimed comedian and five-time Emmy award winning actor, Bill Cosby's string of hits include comedy albums, television shows and books including "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids," "I Spy," and "The Cosby Show." A champion of education as the key to social mobility, in children and the power of knowledge, inspired him to earn both a master's and doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts.