Prince Charles, Traditional Urban Design, and the Washington Post

Prince Charles with Leon Krier, left, and Andrew Hamilton in 1999 as they considered plans for the new-urbanist village Poundbury. Below, London's National Gallery sports a wing in keeping with Charles's values -- after he lambasted an earlier, modernist design. (Tim Graham Picture Library Via Associated Press)

Last week, Prince Charles of the United Kingdom received the Scully Prize awarded by the National Building Museum, in recognition of "The Prince’s long-standing interest in the built environment and commitment to creating urban areas with human scale."

Edward Gunts, the architecture writer for the Baltimore Sun, wrote this article about the Prince, his work, and the award, "Building Museum honors prince for his royal clout." In the article, Gunts states that Prince Charles has "gained international recognition as a foe of bad architecture -- and an ally of those who want to improve the built environment."

In "A Royal Waste of Print," Post columnist Jabari Asim complains about what he sees as the colonial aspects of the visit, in particular a gratuitous visit to a predominately African-American populated school in a low-income DC neighborhood. Ben Forgey, the "Cityscape" columnist, wrote not about the architecture award received by the Prince, but about the new alumni center at the University of Maryland, in the article "New Alumni Center in a Class by Itself." You have to go to the Post website to find an AP article about Prince Charles and the Scully Prize awarded to him by the National Business Museum. This article, "Museum Shows British Traditional Urbanism," acknowledges "British" urbanism but fails to take into account our own "urbanism" as evidenced in cities like Washington and Baltimore.

New wing, National Gallery, London. Image: www.gizmoanimation.co.uk

Linda Hales, the design writer for the Post did write two articles about the award to the Prince about a week before, "Prince Charles to Accept Scully Prize at Building Museum" and "Charles in Charge. Scully Prize-Winning Prince Insists on Looking Back, Speaking Out," but it would be nice to see some ink from the main architecture writer for the Post as well...

Station Place, 2nd Street NE, Washington, DC. Ben Forgey likes this building.

Prince Charles and Camilla at a farmers market in California. AP Photo.