These awards represent the highest level of achievement in the federal sector in all of the design disciplines. The memorial itself was a recipient of one of this year's awards for architecture. The 35 winning projects ranged from museum exhibitions, publications and Web sites to architecture, urban planning and landscape design. Awards were given for the restoration of Grand Central Terminal in New York for historic preservation, to the U.S. Customs and Immigration Center at Niagra Falls for architecture, the United States Federal Courthouse Plaza in Minneapolis for landscape and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum for graphic design. Also recognized were programs that involve stewardship of the built environment such as the National Park Service's Cultural Landscapes Program and the Arts Endowment's Mayors' Institute on City Design .
Design plays a pivotal role in the quality of our cities and the quality of our lives.
The Federal Design Achievement Awards were established as part of the Presidential Design Awards program in 1983. Four juries composed of 22 private-sector design professionals from across the country reviewed 338 submissions from 71 federal agencies representing work in 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Island, and 10 foreign countries. The federal government is the nation's largest builder, printer and user of design services and products. Since the early 1970s, the National Endowment for the Arts, at the President's request, has worked to promote excellent design at the federal level. The Federal Design Improvement Program, a partnership between the Arts Endowment and the General Services Administration, helps ensure that good design is an integral part of responsible stewardship of public resources.