Chosen from a group of 40 individuals and practices nominated by the members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NYUAD Deputy Vice Chancellor Hilary Ballon has been awarded a 2012 architecture award. The awards, established to honor American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction, or an American from any field who has contributed to ideas in architecture through any medium of expression, were announced today.

One of five winners, Ballon, a scholar of architecture and urban studies, was chosen for her work which explores how the built environment affects life in our cities, particularly New York and Paris. In addition to curating The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, currently on view at the Museum of the City of New York, she reconsidered the impact of New York's master builder Robert Moses and stimulated a debate about large-scale public works in Robert Moses and the Modern City, a three-part exhibition and book. Ballon's other books include New York's Pennsylvania Stations, Louis Le Vau: Mazarin's College, Colbert's Revenge, and The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism.

As Ada Louis Huxtable, a member of this year's selection committee, said, the award recognized the "quality of scholarship and the originality and relevance of Hilary Ballon's books, articles, and exhibitions on architectural history and urbanism which have done so much to deepen and enrich our understanding of the art of architecture."

The awards will be presented in New York City in May at the Academy's annual Ceremonial. And work by the winners will be featured in an upcoming exhibition in the Academy's galleries.

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Announces 2012 Architecture Award Winners (press release)