NEW YORK, NY.- Today, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Director Caroline Baumann announced the winners of the 2016 National Design Awards, recognizing excellence and innovation across a variety of disciplines in 11 categories. Now in its 17th year, the annual awards were established to promote design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world. The award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden at Cooper Hewitt.

This year’s recipients are Moshe Safdie for Lifetime Achievement; Make It Right for Director’s Award; Bruce Mau for Design Mind; Center for Urban Pedagogy for Corporate & Institutional Achievement; Marlon Blackwell Architects for Architecture Design; Geoff McFetridge for Communication Design; Opening Ceremony for Fashion Design; Tellart for Interaction Design; Studio O+A for Interior Design; Hargreaves Associates for Landscape Architecture; and Ammunition for Product Design.

“The National Design Awards are a vibrant component of Cooper Hewitt's education arm through which the museum engages year round with design lovers of all ages across the United States and throughout the world,” Baumann said. “This year's class of winners reflect design's remarkable empathy for contemporary social concerns: from promoting workplace productivity to preserving vernacular traditions to encouraging civic engagement. These designers and design firms cross disciplinary boundaries, explore innovative materials and develop new models of problem-solving in pursuit of these goals.”

First Lady Michelle Obama serves as the Honorary Patron for this year’s National Design Awards, which was first launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council.

A jury of design leaders and educators from across the country reviewed submissions resulting from nominations submitted by the general public. Individual nominees must have been practicing professionally for a minimum of seven years; Lifetime Achievement nominees must have been practicing professionally for a minimum of 20 years. Winners are selected based on the level of excellence, innovation and public impact of their body of work. Unlike the jury-selected awards, the Director’s Award is chosen by Baumann and given to an individual or organization in recognition of outstanding support and patronage within the design community.

The winners will be honored at a gala during National Design Week, Oct. 15–23. Launched in 2006, this educational initiative makes great design widely accessible to the public through interactive events and programs for students, teachers, corporate professionals, designers and Cooper Hewitt’s dedicated audience. Programs will be posted at cooperhewitt.org/events.