The jury commended Inga Saffron for "her architectural criticism that combines competence, passionate civic duty, sheer readability into reasoning that excites and surprises every time." This is her fourth Pulitzer Prize nomination and first win.
Saffron has worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer since 1985: first she wrote about the problems of the suburbs, and in the 1990s she was her correspondent in Eastern Europe, covering the wars in Yugoslavia and Chechnya. Having witnessed the destruction of Sarajevo and Grozny, Inga Saffron began to reflect on the fate of cities, and in 1999 began working as an architectural critic. Most of her articles are devoted to urban planning problems, projects and buildings in Philadelphia - Saffron rarely writes about other cities and countries. At the same time, the public listens to her opinion, and along with it - the authorities and customers.
Awarding a publicist of such a narrow specialization is quite in the spirit of the American interpretation of architectural criticism as protecting the interests of citizens. This line also includes Pulitzer's three previous architectural laureates - Allan Temko of the San Francisco Chronicle (1990), Robert Campbell of The Boston Globe (1996) and Blair Kamin of the Chicago Tribune. (1999).
In total, including Saffron, architectural critics have won the Pulitzer Prize six times - in 1970, when the nomination for "Criticism", including all its types, was just created, its first laureate was Ada Louise Huxtable from The New York Times, and in 1984, her successor in this newspaper is Paul Goldberger.
The Pulitzer Prize, which also recognizes achievements in the arts, has been awarded since 1917. Each year, 20 people are awarded in various categories, each receiving $ 10,000.
