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Bottom, l. to r.: Cooper Union Chairman Ron Drucker, Annie Leibovitz (art honoree), David Childs (architecture honoree). Middle, l. to r.: Lloyd G. Trotter (engineering honoree), T.J. Gottesdiener (dinner chair), Hedy Klineman (dinner chair), Cooper Union President George Campbell Jr. Top, l. to r.: Kevin Burke (dinner chair), Richard Ravitch (urban citizenship honoree). |
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| The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art held its sixth annual Urban Visionaries benefit dinner earlier last month at 7 World Trade Center, and honored Richard Ravitch, a principal partner in Ravitch, Rice & Company LLC; photojournalist Annie Leibovitz; architect David Childs; investor Lloyd G. Trotter; and Kenyan-born artist Wangechi Mutu. Each of the Urban Visionaries has contributed professional energy, creativity and public service, enhancing the world around them. |
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Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture Dean Anthony Vidler, Barbara Sciame, Steven Davis, Frank Sciame, Richard Tomasetti, and Lance Brown |
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| Richard Ravitch is widely known for creating affordable housing with an understanding of the impact of architecture on quality of life. Ms. Leibovitz’ large and distinguished body of work encompasses some of the most well known portraits of our time. David Childs’ works continue to shape the New York City skyline. |
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The pre-dinner scene at 7 World Trade Center. |
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| Lloyd Trotter, a partner in GenNx360 Capital Partner, a new firm that invests in companies focusing on areas such as commercial security, industrial water treatment, infrastructure, and aerospace, is recognized for his exceptional commitment to management excellence and educational opportunity. Wangechi Mutu who graduated from The Cooper Union's School of Art in 1997 and went on to earn a MFA in sculpture from Yale University, is best known for her luscious yet unsettling pictures of female figures. Her painted and collaged works function as potent social critique while simultaneously exploring more poetic strains of mythology and the sensuousness of form, color and pattern. |
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| Last Thursday night at the Bowery Hotel, Danielle Levine hosted A Kageno Summer Night in memory of her father. Those attending included Event Committee members: Dylan Lauren, Jason Pomeranc, Miguel Fabregas, Alexis and Priscila Zoullas, Lesley Schulhof, Patrick McMullan and Amanda Smith. Among the 300 people joining them were Tory Burch, Ann Dexter-Jones, Maggie Betts and Alexandra Kerry. The evening included cocktails provided by 10 Cane Rum and Domain Chandon, hors d’oeuvres from the Bowery Hotel and music by DJ Ben Butler. Other event sponsors included Voss Water and HBO. The evening benefited the construction and endowment of a Nursery School at Banda Village in Rwanda through Kageno. Over $100,000 was raised. |
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Danielle Levine |
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| Kageno (“a place of hope” in a Kenyan dialect) is a 501 (c) non-profit organization based in New York and currently operating in Africa. Kageno’s mission is to transform communities suffering from inhumane poverty into places of opportunity and hope by identifying and delivering actionable programs through its Innovative Community Centers (ICCS). Kageno targets villages plagued by impoverishment, AIDS, genocide and limited access to healthcare and education. Living standards are improved by offering health services, access to clean water, improved sanitation, job creation and environmental initiatives. |
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| “My Blueberry Nights” is the first English speaking feature from the award-winning and acclaimed director Wong Kar Wai, who is considered one of the world’s greatest filmmakers and aesthetic visionaries. The Cinema Society and IWC Schaffhausen had the honor of hosting a screening of the thought-provoking film along with a party following at the Tribeca and Soho Grand Hotels. The film’s stars Norah Jones, David Strathairn, and songstress Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) joined director Wong Kar Wai and Cinema Society founder Andrew Saffir for the thought-provoking screening and party which followed at the Tribeca and Soho Grand Hotels. Among the stellar crowd: Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel, Ang Lee, Chloe Sevigny, Ziyi Zhang, Salman Rushdie, Wendi Murdoch, Maryam D’Abo, Ben Foster, Norman Reedus, Christopher McDonald, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, Milena Govich (“Law and Order”, “K-Ville”), Heather Matarazzo, Zoe Kravitz, Agyness Deyn, Alexi Lubomirski, Vivienne Tam, Anna Sui, Keira Chaplin, Erin Fetherston, Katherine Ross, Vivi Nevo, Derek Blasberg, Daniel Benedict, Kelly Bensimon, Ogden Phipps, Irina Pantaeva, Johannes Huebl, Olivia Palermo, Sessa von Richthofen, and Bettina Zilkha, along with IWC’s Frederick Martel and Lisa Pilkington. Everybody drank blueberry mojitos and snacked on the film’s signature blueberry pies until well into the night. |
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| Earlier last month David Hyde Pierce emceed the annual “Forget-Me-Not” gala from the Alheimer’s Association, New York City Chapter at the Pierre. Members of the city’s philanthropic business and health care communities joined elected officials, leaders of the community and other celebrities affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Actress Kate Burton received this year’s Creative Leadership Award; Rick Schneider received special recognition from the Chapter. Tom O’Horgan, director of such shows as Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Lenny and Inner City, and who himself has Alzheimer’s was this year’s Public Awareness Award recipient. Karen Bell MD was the Community Leadership Honoree. Dr. Bell is a Neurologist and Associate Professor at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, and the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical center. She is a major contributor to research studies on the treatment of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. Jonathan Groff, star of Broadway's Spring Awakening performed “Where Do I Go?” from Hair. Mr. Groff is appearing in a revival of Hair this summer in Shakespeare in the Park in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the musical. The gala was chaired by Mark Zurack and raised more than $1.3 million. |
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| Noel Ashman is a New York based club owner/movie producer/real estate investor. These guys appear to be party guys on first sight. Looks are deceiving: they are businessmen in the old New York style, the entrepreneurs of the endless, fluid, always changing New York nights. Ashman owns The Plumm, a hip night club on the edge of the Meatpacking District on West 14th Street, with partners/actors Chris Noth and Jesse Bradford, as well as former New York Yankees player David Wells, Damon Dash, and Joey McIntyre. Last week they celebrated Noel Ashman’s birthday at The Plumm. I don’t know how old he is but he’s still a kid, and they partied; they partied kid. |
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| Photographs by Leo Sorel (Cooper); ©PatrickMcMullan.com (Kageno, Cinema Society, Ashman); Ronald L. Glassman (Alzheimer’s). | Click here [5] for NYSD Contents |