Architect Deborah Berke is the first recipient of the 2012 Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize from the University University of California, Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design (CED). “Deborah Berke exemplifies everything this prize is meant to celebrate,” said says CED dean Jennifer Wolch. “The excellence of her craft, her creative approach to sustainability, and her willingness to mentor women in the field and share her ideas and expertise make her the perfect person to receive the Berkeley-Rupp Prize.”

The Berkeley-Rupp Prize awards $100,000, a semester-long professorship, a public lecture, and a gallery exhibition at CED. During her professorship, Berke will examine the concept of “buildings for work”—architecture that supports the creative undertakings of others while not compromising its own voice. With her belief that women, as well as minorities, are underrepresented in the field, she will also study how the workplace can empower both women and men equally.