Diller Scofidio + Renfro Wins 2012 Lawrence Israel Prize

The Interior Design Department at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has announced Diller Scofidio + Renfro as this year’s recipient of the Lawrence Israel Prize. Endowed by architect Lawrence J. Israel, the prize has been given annually since 1998 to an individual or firm whose ideas and work enrich FIT Interior Design students’ course of study.

Each year, the award recipient is invited to give a public talk on their work. Diller Scofidio + Renfro's talk will take place on Thursday, March 15 at 6 pm at FIT in the John E. Reeves Great Hall, Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center, Seventh Avenue at 28th Street. This event is free and open to the public, with no reservations required.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the firm known for the High Line and the renovation of Lincoln Center, is a 75-person interdisciplinary studio based in New York City. For three decades, the firm has been involved with all fields of design, including graphics, installations, experimental dance and theater productions. Past and current projects include museums, restaurants, civic buildings, entertainment complexes, houses, high-rise residential mixed-use developments, and theater and performance pieces. Prominent among these are The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston; The Brasserie in the Seagram Building; the Blur Building, Switzerland; and Moving Target, a dance work made in collaboration with Charleroi/Danses, Belgium and loosely based on Nijinsky's uncensored diaries. Diller and Scofidio are the first architects to have been honored with a MacArther Prize.

The Lawrence Israel Prize committee noted, “Diller Scofidio + Renfro stands as a keen role model for all students of design, particularly for our students at FIT. Whether it is exterior or interior, written or spoken, their work inspires thought. One never simply inhabits a work by DS+R; instead they provoke us with new perspectives both literally and metaphorically. They’ve proven to New York how unnecessary it is to pull down the house when smart surgical insertions can upturn a foundation. More than architects, they are the alchemists and choreographers of a new mode of dwelling.”