Party Pictures 10/16/03 - Urban Land Institute, Vincent Scully, Cunningham Dance Company Benefit, Ruffino Wines

The Urban Land Institute honored Vincent Scully

Wayne Nichols, Professor Scully, and Jenette Nichols

Professor and Mrs. Vincent Scully

The Urban Land Institute held a lunch honoring Vincent Scully last Wednesday (October 8) at The Four Seasons
Hotel on 57th Street.

" Everyone you'd ever want to have lunch or dinner with is here," said architect Robert A.M. Stern.

Professor Scully is the legendary architectural historian whose weekly lectures at Yale are still, after more than 40 years, standing room only. Over the years, Professor Scully has taught such prominent architects as Bob Stern (now Dean of Yale School of Architecture), Richard Meier, Thomas Beeby, Maya Lin, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Billie Tsien and Allan Greenberg, many of whom turned out to salute him.

Vincent Scully and Gerald Hines holding the prize

Professor Scully was receiving the prestigious J.C. Nichols Prize, named after the developer of one of the country's first, and still most elegant, shopping centers and residential communities in Kansas City, MO (think "Miracle Mile" in Manhasset or Worth Avenue in Palm Beach).

Jesse Clyde Nichols, working in the early part of the 20th century, not only built an incredible and often emulated community, but he also advised presidents, governors and other developers. He's a founder of the Urban Land Institute and dedicated a lot of his life to teaching others the important values of creating places that people would want to live and work in, raise families and be proud of.

The Prize, created by Nichols' family, bestows $100,000 on the winner for visionary urban development. Before Professor Scully, the prize was given to the late Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. (Charleston, SC), and the developer Gerald Hines.

During the tributes to Professor Scully, people cited his amazing commitment to architecture, his incredible understanding of the mind and creative spirit of the architect, his unsurpassable dedication to his students, the breadth of his knowledge about the life and architecture of cities, particularly his "beloved New Haven", where he was born, raised, educated, and has taught at Yale forever.

Betsey Barlow Rogers and Jenette Nichols

Jim DiFrancia and Harry Frampton

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

Bob Stern read a letter from Yale President Richard Levin. "As the eighth president to work under Vince," he read, "I can tell you he is a hard task master. Mayors have found him a demanding boss as well " because of his enormously high standards for how buildings should be conceived, made, preserved, used and how vitally important cities are. We in New York know a thing or two about that. President Levin concluded by thanking Professor Scully for doing more than is imaginable for one Eli [to] do for Yale, New Haven and America.

And he didn't just teach future architects. Robert Venturi said that once, when he broke his foot in Philadelphia, the emergency room doctor who was treating him said to him, “You're Bob Venturi, the architect, aren't you?"

" How do you know that?" asked Bob (architects aren't generally 'recognized' the way movie stars and socialites are). "I took Vincent Scully's class at Yale," said the doctor and he talked about your work all the time!" So even those of us who don't contribute directly to the making of cities have much to learn from the great professor.

Professor Scully was moved to tears, saying the only reason he wasn't crying outright was because his wife didn’t like it when he did. He joked that he might use some of the prize money to buy a Mini, a bright yellow one with a black top (the perfect urban car).

He's a gracious and elegant man with a quiet gentleness about him. He spoke with such humility, saying he felt privileged to learn from the students he taught, and such obvious love for the work he feels privileged to be able to do. It made me want to rush up to Yale to stand in the back of the room with the rest of the SROs to learn from the this great, urbane, urban hero. "Viva Vince" as Bob Stern said.

— Jill Lewis for NewYorkSocialDiary.com

Allan Greenberg and Robert Venturi

Rick Rosan, president of ULI, and Jere Lucey

From our correspondent on the scene re: Tuesday night's Cunningham Dance Company Benefit at BAM

Nancy Dalva and Patsy Tarr

Last night's Cunningham Dance Company Benefit was absolutely sensational and everyone who attended knew by the end of the performance they had witnessed something so special, so rare and so brilliant, there was no doubt in anyone's mind they were in the right place at the right time and that fate or chance, two concepts dear to Cunningham, had afforded them the opportunity to witness a performance destined to become legendary.

Unfortunately, my camera was CONFISCATED during a bag check entering the Brooklyn Academy and I was thus unable to document the historic moment when Merce, Bob Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns took the stage along with Mayor Bloomberg to welcome the audience and commence the evening.

SPLIT SIDES, the title of the World Premiere, featured new music from Radiohead and Sigor Ros, the two leading art rock bands of the moment, performed live and in person by these groups, who can now boast a devoted following of "Baby Boomers" in addition to the hordes of "Gen Xers" who constitute their usual audience.

Sage Cowles, President of the Board of the Cunningham Dance Foundation and Derry Swan

Without lapsing into dance criticism let me report the dance succeeded beyond all expectation: Virtuosic dancing, gorgeous sets and lighting, amazing music, both rhythmic and beautiful, and the incomparable, heartbreakingly magnificent, choreography. The standing ovation lasted a good 10 minutes after the curtain came down.

The performance was preceded by a dinner in the Brooklyn Masonic Temple which was packed with luminaries from the Arts, and where it was announced the Company had achieved their fundraising goal of $350,000.00 plus. The After Party which I only attended briefly, was crammed with young folks. I left that party early (it was already getting late and it was pouring) and spent the rest of the night thinking about Merce, 84-years-young, still showing us the infinite possibilities in life all to be had by just saying "Yes" to all good ideas.