Inga Saffron (born November 9, 1957) is an American journalist and

architecture critic Architecture criticism is the critique of architecture. Everyday criticism relates to published or broadcast critiques of buildings, whether completed or not, both in terms of news and other criteria. In many cases, criticism amounts to an assessmen ...

. She won the 2014

Pulitzer Prize for Criticism The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism has been presented since 1970 to a newspaper writer in the United States who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism'. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by C ...

while writing for ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

''.

Early life and education

Saffron was raised in

Levittown, New York Levittown is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Hempstead (town), New York, Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York (state), New York. It is a suburb of New York C ...

, and attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. She studied abroad in France for one year, then decided not to return to school and moved to

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Career

In Ireland, she wrote for local publications and worked as a freelancer with ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

''. Upon returning to the United States, Saffron wrote for the ''

Courier-News The ''Courier News'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Somerville, New Jersey, that serves Somerset County and other areas of Central Jersey. The paper has been owned by Gannett since 1927. Notable employees *John Curley, former presi ...

'' in

Somerville, New Jersey Somerville is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in and the county seat of Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'' as the ''Inquirer''

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

correspondent, and served in this capacity until 1998. Saffron covered the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

and

First Chechen War The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a struggle for independence waged by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the invading Russia, Russian Federation from 1994 to 1996. After a mutually agreed on treaty ...

. Beginning in 1999, she became the ''Inquirer''s architecture columnist, writing "Changing Skyline", an architecture column. Saffron gained notoriety for a 2020 article entitled "Buildings Matter, Too," in which she said destruction of property was not a valid response to the

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit tw ...

incident.

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

She was a

Loeb Fellow The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...

at the

Harvard University Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...

in 2012.

Awards

Since becoming ''

''s resident architecture critic in 1999, Saffron has won many awards for her insightful and pointed critiques of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

, planning, and urbanism in her city. In 2010, she was awarded the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award. In 2014, Saffron won the

after receiving nominations for the prize in 2004, 2008, and 2009. In 2018, Saffron was one of two architecture critics to be honored with the

Vincent Scully Prize The Vincent Scully Prize was established in 1999 to recognize exemplary practice, scholarship or criticism in architecture, historic preservation and urban design. Created by the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., the award first honore ...

, awarded by the

National Building Museum The National Building Museum is a museum of architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning in Northwest Washington, D.C., U.S. It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit institution. Located at ...

; her fellow honoree was Robert Campbell, the architecture critic at ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

''.

Partial bibliography

* 2002: ''Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World's Most Coveted Delicacy'',

Broadway Books Broadway Books is an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.. It released its first list in Fall 1996. Broadway was founded in 1995 as a unit of Bantam Doubleday Dell, a unit of Bertelsmann. Bertelsmann acquire ...

* 2020: ''Becoming Philadelphia: How an Old American City Made Itself New Again'',

Rutgers University Press Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Pub ...

Personal life

Saffron is married to writer

Ken Kalfus Ken Kalfus (born April 9, 1954 in New York City) is an American author and journalist. Three of his books have been named ''New York Times'' Notable Books of the Year. Early life and education He was born in the Bronx, and grew up in Plainview, ...

, with whom she has a daughter, Sky.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saffron, Inga 1957 births Living people American expatriates in Ireland 20th-century American women journalists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women journalists 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women writers American architecture critics Journalists from Pennsylvania New York University alumni People from Levittown, New York Pulitzer Prize for Criticism winners The Philadelphia Inquirer people