Our Mission and Vision
The Rudy Bruner Center for Urban Excellence promotes innovative thinking and conversation about the role of design in cities.
Mission
The Rudy Bruner Center for Urban Excellence (RBC) offers a platform for ongoing inquiry and exchange on design in the urban environment for anyone interested in urban development. The RBC connects design with the full complexity of processes and disciplines required for comprehensive urban placemaking.
Excellent urban projects are rarely the creation of one organization or even one sector of the economy, but rather the result of collaborations between non-profit, private/for-profit, and public (government) entities. The kinds of projects that emerge as RBA winners almost always involve close cooperation among organizations from two or all three of these sectors, even though many are created and driven by non-profit organizations.
- Wener, et al. 2001. Placemaking for Change: 2001 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence
Vision
The RBC seeks out and shares stories of innovative and inspiring urban development to enhance understanding of design in the urban environment and how it creates beautiful, equitable, and resilient places. Using interdisciplinary methods, the RBC team and partners develop research, educational materials, programs, and projects that align with the RBC mission.
Award to Research Center
Building on the legacy of the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA), a national design award was established in 1985 and was named after Rudy Bruner. The center continues the work of recognizing and documenting transformative urban places that enhance the economic, environmental, and social well-being of communities. The RBA, which concluded its final awards in 2019, honored 88 such places across the United States.
The RBA Collection continues to inform the work conducted by the RBC.
