Honor Award
Bestowed at the Museum’s annual Gala since 1986, the Honor Award recognizes individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to our built heritage. Recipients are leaders who have defined our culture, developed our communities, and crafted our built environment. Individually, they have advanced our building arts and sciences. Collectively, their legacy is profound.
As Autodesk approaches more than four decades of groundbreaking innovation, the National Building Museum is proud to honor them with the 2026 Honor Award, celebrating their transformative impact on the way the world is designed and made. Since its founding, Autodesk has empowered architects, engineers, designers, builders, manufacturers, and artists with digital tools that bring bold ideas to life—advancing work that has shaped cities, strengthened communities, and elevated our shared aspirations for the future.
Through its Design & Make Platform, Autodesk has enabled some of the most technically ambitious projects of our time; projects that prioritize sustainability, cultural impact, and iconic design. By connecting data, design, and delivery across the project lifecycle, Autodesk has become an essential catalyst for innovation across architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and media and entertainment.
Past Honor Award Recipients
2025- Gensler
2024- Marriott International
2023- Kohler Co.
2022- Arup
2021- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
2019- JGB SMITH and Washington Housing Initiative
2018- Madison Marquette and Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington
2017- Brookfield Properties and the National Endowment for the Arts
2016 - CoStar Group, DAVIS Construction, and Casey Trees
2015- The Rockefeller Foundation, STUDIOS Architecture, and Capital Bikeshare
2014- Mrs. Laura Bush and the National Trust for Historic Preservation
2013- Turner Construction Company
2012-Urban Land Institute
2011- Celebrating our Past, Building our Future
2008- The Associated General Contractors of America
2007- Related
2006- Clark Construction Group, LLC
2005- Forest City Enterprises
2004 General Services Administration
2003- Major League Baseball and The National Football League
2002- DuPont
2001- Michael D. Eisner and The Walt Disney Company
2000- Gerald D. Hines
1999- Harold W. McGraw Jr., Harold McGraw III, and The McGraw-Hill Companies
1998- Stephen and Riley Bechtel and The Bechtel Group
1997- Community Builders of Washington, D.C.: Morris Cafritz, Charles E. Smith, Charles A. Horsky, and Oliver T. Carr Jr.
1996- Cindy and Jay Pritzker
1995- Lady Bird Johnson
1994 James A. Johnson and Fannie Mae
1993 J. Carter Brown
1992 The Civic Leadership of Greater Pittsburgh
1991 The Rockefeller Family
1990 IBM Corporation
1989 Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
1988 James W. Rouse
1986 J. Irwin Miller
Vincent Scully Prize
The Vincent Scully Prize, established in 1999, is named for the esteemed professor who inspired so many across the building disciplines. Scully was the Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Yale University and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Miami. For more than four decades, his teaching and scholarship profoundly influenced prominent architects, urban planners, and others.
The Prize recognizes excellence in practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture, historic preservation, and urban design. The nomination and selection process for each year’s recipient resides within the Prize jury. The Museum participates in deliberations and may submit candidates, but it does not vote on finalists.
- Chair: Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic, Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair
- Nancy Levinson, Editor and Executive Director, Places Journal
- Stephen Luoni, AIA, Director, University of Arkansas Community Design Center
- Toshiko Mori, Architect, Professor in the Practice of Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
- Andrea Roberts, PhD, Preservation Planner, Associate Professor of Urban + Environmental Planning, University of Virginia School of Architecture
2025 Vincent Scully Prize
The National Building Museum is proud to recognize Barry Bergdoll, as the twenty-seventh recipient of the Museum’s annual Vincent Scully Prize.
Past Recipients
2025- Barry Bergdoll
2024- Walter Hood
2023- Theaster Gates
2022- Dolores Hayden
2021- Mabel O. Wilson
2019- Elizabeth Meyer, FASLA
2018- Robert Campbell and Inga Saffron
2017- Laurie Olin, FASLA
2013- Joshua David and Robert Hammond
2012- Paul Goldberger
2011- William K. Reilly
2010- Adele Chatfield-Taylor
2009- Christopher Alexander
2008- Robert A. M. Stern
2007- Richard Moe
2007- Witold Rybczynski / Read the transcript
2006- Phyllis Lambert
2005- His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales / Read the transcript
2002- Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown / Read the transcript
2001- Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Andres Duany
2000- Jane Jacobs / Read the transcript
1999- Vincent Scully
Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction
The prize, named after the founder of Turner Construction Company, recognizes an invention, an innovative methodology, and/or exceptional leadership by an individual or team of individuals in construction technology including construction techniques, innovations and practices, project management, and engineering design. The Turner Construction Company established an endowment in 2001 to support the Prize, which carries a cash award of $25,000.
SBP
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Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Department of Architecture Engineering of the Pennsylvania State University
Lean Construction Institute
Society of Women Engineers
Caterpillar, Inc.
Engineers without Borders
Charles H. Thornton
Gehry Partners and Gehry Technologies
Dr. Paul Teicholz
U.S. Green Building Council
Charles A. DeBenedittis
I.M. Pei
Leslie E. Robertson