Times Design Critic Gets Prestigious Fellowship

Sam Hall Kaplan, Times design critic, has been awarded a fellowship under the design arts program of the National Endowment of the Arts.

The fellowship carries with it a $10,000 grant to aid Kaplan in the research of the design qualities of public spaces--such as streets, plazas and parks--that lend select cities a sense of history and place.

A staff member of The Times since 1978, Kaplan previously taught architecture and urban design at the City University of New York, lectured at Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities, served as design critic for public television and directed various redevelopment and construction programs.

He also was a member of the editorial boards of Architectural Forum and Architecture Plus magazines, an urban affairs reporter for the New York Times and an assistant managing editor of the New York Post.

A graduate of Cornell University, Kaplan’s books include “The Dream Deferred: People, Politics and Planning in Suburbia,” and “Los Angeles Lost and Found,” the latter to be published next year by Crown.