Rudy Bruner Center for Urban Excellence
The Rudy Bruner Center builds on the legacy of the former Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, a national design award that recognized models in urban placemaking across the United States between 1985 and 2019. Photo: Buffalo Bayou Park, winner of 2019 Rudy Bruner Award Silver Medal.
The Rudy Bruner Center for Urban Excellence (RBC) is a research and educational center at the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning focused on innovative thinking and conversation about the role of design in the complex process of city making.
About the RBC
Supported by a $5 million endowed fund from the Bruner Foundation, the RBC will serve as a living resource and tool for research, scholarship and practice related to urban development and the process of enabling beautiful, just and resilient places. The center operates in partnership with the UB Regional Institute, a research center of the School of Architecture and Planning, and with the UB Libraries.
“The Rudy Bruner Award Collection is packed with best practices on urban placemaking across the continental United States. Engaging faculty, students and partners vested in community and professional practices, the Rudy Bruner Center will mine the RBA for theories of practice and an expanded vocabulary for research and teaching that speaks to the full complexity of urban placemaking.”
Robert G. Shibley, inaugural director of the RBC and Rudy Bruner Chair in Urban Excellence
Both the transition of the RBA and the development of the center are the culmination of a decades-long partnership between Simeon Bruner, founding principal of Boston-based Bruner/Cott Architects, and Robert G. Shibley, longtime dean of UB’s School of Architecture and Planning. Shibley recently announced he will step down from his leadership post to resume his faculty position as SUNY Distinguished Professor and lead the center as the Rudy Bruner Chair in Urban Excellence.
The transition from an active awards program to a research institution is an interesting challenge. Bob Shibley was instrumental in designing the RBA and has contributed to every round. We are confident that he will use the trove of information we have developed over the years to continue to explore creative solutions to the complex problems of placemaking.
Simeon Bruner, founding principal of Boston-based Bruner/Cott Architects, and founder of the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence
Contact us
We welcome all inquiries and questions about the transition of the RBA and the future of the Rudy Bruner Center for Urban Excellence.
Camden Miller, PhD
Director of Operations
camdenmi@buffalo.edu
Robert G. Shibley, FAIA, FAICP
SUNY Distinguished Professor and Rudy Bruner Chair in Urban Excellence
The School of Architecture and Planning’s Rudy Bruner Center for Urban Excellence will operate in partnership with the UB Regional Institute’s (UBRI) offices at the UB Downtown Gateway building beginning Summer 2023.