U.S. hosting 2011 Brunel Awards
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefThe United States will host the 2011 Brunel Awards International Railway Design Competition. This prestigious competition recognizes and promotes the best in railway architecture, engineering, landscape and environmental design, product design, locomotive and car design, graphic arts, and corporate branding among the world’s railways.
The competition is jointly hosted by the Association of American Railroads, the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer (UIC), and the Center for Industrial Design in Transportation, Inc. (C4IDT), the event organizer. Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo and AAR President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger serve as honorary co-chairs of the Brunel Awards Committee.
The Watford General Assembly, the competition’s sponsor, awarded the competition to the U.S. in recognition of the government’s commitment to rail transportation investment. The Brunel Awards were created in 1985 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of England’s Great Western Railway, which was designed by the renowned British architect and engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The competition has been held at three-year intervals rotating among the Watford member nations; it was last held in the U.S. in 1994.
The competition is open to all public and private railway organizations that own or operate common carrier rail services on classic main line or high speed rail infrastructure, and public or private railroad infrastructure owner/managers. Entrants must have had some involvement in the project, either in commissioning the work, owning the work, managing the design process, or overseeing the construction. Projects must have been completed after Jan. 1, 2006. The deadline for submission is May 31, 2011. The awards will be presented at a formal ceremony in Washington, D.C. in October.
Entry information and competition rules can be downloaded at www.watford-group.org/brunel-coming.html. Additional information is available upon request from the Center for Industrial Design in Transportation, Inc. at brunel2011@c4idt.org.
Railway Age magazine is the Official English Media Sponsor of the 2011 Brunel Awards International Railway Design Competition.
