Signs of the Times - Award for Chalkboard
May 2008
Excellence in Stone: Award for Chalkboard
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The following is a press release from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression

Charlottesville’s Community Chalkboard and Podium: A Monument to the First Amendment was awarded a Tucker Architectural Award at a ceremony in Dallas, Texas on May 9. Given by the Building Stone Institute, the bi-annual Tucker Architectural Awards honor those who have achieved excellence in the incorporation and use of natural stone in building or landscape projects around the world.

Locally referred to as “the First Amendment Monument” or “the free speech wall,” the Community Chalkboard and Podium is made of natural cleft slate (unique to Buckingham County, Virginia) that allows visitors to exercise their right of free speech by writing in chalk on its surface. Designed by local architects Pete O’Shea and Robert Winstead, the monument was sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, a Charlottesville-based First Amendment advocacy organization. Having already received design awards from the Virginia chapters of the American Institute of Architects and the American Association of Landscape Architects, this is the third design honor O’Shea and Winstead have received for the monument since it was dedicated on April 20, 2006.

Founded in 1919 and located in Elgin, Illinois, the Building Stone Institute is a not-for-profit trade association dedicated to serving its member firms while at the same time educating consumers on the uses and benefits of natural stone. More information on the Building Stone Institute and the Tucker Architectural Awards can be found at http://www.buildingstoneinstitute.org/awards.html.

(Electronic mail, May 16, 2008)


Comments? Questions? Write me at george@loper.org.