From the Archives: Pulitzer Prize Finalist Inga Saffron
Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron was named as a 2008 Pulitzer Prize runner-up in the criticism category yesterday for her “forceful critiques that illuminate the vital interplay between architecture and the life of her city.” Back in our March issue, senior writer Richard Rys profiled Saffron in “Why Are Men Who Build Skyscrapers Afraid of This Woman?”
Surrounded by steel and glass, she stands in the lobby of the Comcast Center, gazing up and around, doing the mental calculus that comes naturally after eight years in this job. Inga Saffron takes a long look at Humanity in Motion, the installation by sculptor Jonathan Borofsky that fills this cavernous entryway. It begins on the ground, with life-size statues of a black man and a child, both looking up above, where men and women carved of fiberglass walk along beams that crisscross in all directions. “I rather like the idea of all these people on these different trajectories that never intersect,” Saffron says. “It’s like a metaphor for humanity. The sculpture reflects the crossroads quality of what this could be. You can imagine the crowd of people completing this artwork.”
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Photo: Ryan Donnell
