The Rockefeller Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2016 Jane Jacobs Medal. Awarded annually, the medal honors individuals whose work creates new ways of seeing and understanding cities, challenges traditional assumptions about urban life, creatively uses the built environment to make cities places of hope and expectation, and influences global understanding and application of Jane Jacobs' principles.

In celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Jacobs' birth and the impact of her ideas on cities around the world, the award was open this year for the first time to international nominees. The 2016 recipients of the award are Joan Clos, executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, which promotes sustainable urban development around the world, and PK Das, a Mumbai-based architect and activist who has worked to revitalize open spaces, rehabilitate slums, and bring the voice of Mumbai residents into the urban planning process. Both will be honored at a ceremony during the United Nations Habitat III Conference, an effort spearheaded by Clos, later this month in Quito, Ecuador. In addition to the medal, the winners will receive a cash award, which in past years has been $100,000.

"I am delighted to be nominated for this distinguished award," said Clos. "It is deeply gratifying to witness a developing worldwide consensus over the recognition of the power of urbanization as a driver for wealth, employment, and human progress. The New Urban Agenda is an opportunity for achieving inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities for all."

"With the expansion of cities, public spaces are sharply declining, both in physical and democratic terms," said Das. "Cities are increasingly being divided. We are producing more backyards of discrimination, neglect and abuse of people and places, even natural areas are not spared. Our challenge is to integrate these fragmented and disparate backyards into unified, just and equal cities. For the achievement of this objective, planning and architecture are incredible democratic tools of socio-environmental change that I actively pursue through collective endeavor. I am deeply motivated and honored by this prestigious first international Jane Jacobs Award being conferred on me."