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June 6,
2003
CITY,
MERCK SHARE SMART GROWTH LEADERSHIP AWARD
RAHWAY – The city, along with the City of Linden and Merck &
Co., Inc. were among six smart growth efforts statewide that were
recognized May 29 at New Jersey Future’s 2003 Smart Growth Awards
Celebration in Newark.
“These winners demonstrate the diversity that New Jersey has to
offer in smart growth,” said Architect and Urban Designer Robert
Geddes, FAIA and Emeritus Dean, Princeton University and chair of
the awards selection committee. “They represent the success that
New Jersey is capable of achieving.”
The
event was hosted by Merck & Co., Inc., and chaired by Raymond V.
Gilmartin, Merck Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Sponsor of the annual awards program is New Jersey Future, the
state’s oldest and largest smart growth organization, and a
nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy organization.
Merck, the city and Linden were co-recipients of this year’s Smart
Growth Leadership Award for 100 years of community investment and
redevelopment at Merck’s research and manufacturing facility in
Rahway and Linden. Following the departure of Merck’s corporate
headquarters from Rahway in the mid-1990s, the city worked with
Merck officials to rezone the company’s campus as New Jersey’s
first research and development zone. This action has fuled a
significant growth of Merck in Rahway, as the company nearly
doubled its workforce and invested $1 billion in expansion and
improvements to its facilities.
“Rahway has been among the state’s leaders in making ‘smart
growth’ a reality,” said Mayor James Kennedy, who was present at
the awards ceremony. “Currently, we have been working with Merck
to better link its campus with our central business district. The
company has been a long supporter of our downtown
revitalization efforts,
and I look forward to continuing our cooperation well into the
future.”
“As Merck has grown
over the past 100 years, we have sought to grow the right way
– in a spirit of partnership with our local communities,” said
Gilmartin.
Also
receiving awards were Asbury Partners, for its plan to
revitalize Asbury Park’s waterfront; the Township of Chesterfield,
for creating a transfer-of-development-rights program; the
City of New Brunswick, for the important and diverse redevelopment
of Lower George Street; the New Jersey Performing Arts Center,
for lasting positive impact on downtown Newark through its
high-quality urban design; and the Urban League of Hudson County,
for its new headquarters helping to revitalize an important
neighborhood in Jersey City.
The
2003 Smart Growth Leadership Award was presented to Merck and the
city by choice of the Board of Trustees of New Jersey Future. The
2003 Smart Growth Award winners were chosen by a panel of planning
and development professionals from nominated projects submitted by
architects, planners, municipalities and developers statewide.
Serving with Geddes on the 2003 Awards Selection Committee were:
Beth Kitchen, AICP, P.P. and president-Kitchen & Associates
Architectural Services of Collingswood, NJ and Philadelphia;
Anthony L. Marchetta, vice president-LCOR Incorporated, New York,
NY, and a former member of the State Planning Commission; Ingrid
W. Reed, director-Eagleton New Jersey Project, Rutgers University,
and chair of the Capital City (Trenton) Redevelopment Corporation;
and Brian Trelstad, senior associate-McKinsey & Company and
formerly lead environmental staff member with the Clinton
administration’s AmeriCorps program.
“Each of these honored projects brings to its community the
invaluable assets of good design,” said Geddes. “They also shun
the easier and often less-costly road of sprawling development to
offer instead growth that is good for the local economy and the
region’s environment. These are the hallmarks of smart growth.”
For additional
information, call 609/393-0008 ext. 101 or visit
www.njfuture.org. |
