Colombia Passport

The former Major of Medellín, Sergio Fajardo and a current presidential candidate, won the Curry Stone Design 2009 for his projects of social urbanism during his 2004-2007 period as Major of the second largest capital of Colombia. The CSD honors individuals or groups for developing and implementing a visionary design innovation.

Winning projects engage communities at the fulcrum of change, raising awareness, empowering individuals and fostering collective revitalization.

The administration of Fajardo is famous for his plans of urban development that integrated the most marginalized and violent sectors of the city, reducing the number of criminality and murders in Medellín.

Libraries, natural parks, schools, cultural centers and transport, among others, made the city one of the world models of social urbanism and attracted the international interests. Curry Stone Design pointed in its press release that the projects of Fajardo made that the city went from fear to hope.

Alejandro Echeverri, former director of urban planning under the administration of Fajardo and one of the 2009 CSD winners.

The former Major receives also the award with Alejandro Echeverri who was the director of urban projects in the administration of Fajardo. The CSD award is an annual recognition to individuals or groups around the world with innovative projects in the social development of their communities through architecture and urbanism.

The city was recently elected as the headquarters of the 7^th Ibero-Amercian Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2010. The city was elected as a model of social urbanism, something that has to see with the projects made during the administration of Fajardo.

The importance of the Colombian political leader has been noted recently during his speech to a crowd of more than 1,500 persons in the Cibeles Center of Ciudad Juares in Mexico last Monday.

‘Juárez, too, can make the transition from fear to hope. It starts by closing the doors to organized crime, reducing violence and providing opportunities to those without hope,’ he said.

Former Medellín Major Sergio Fajardo.

He shared his experience as Major of Medellín, once a murdered capital, as it is now Ciudad Juarez under the same reasons: the organized crime of the drug mafias.

‘In just four years, Alejandro Echeverri, then-director of urban projects, and Sergio Fajardo, former mayor, led the charge for urban renewal, supported by a vast team of architects, technicians and community members and buoyed by Fajardo’s belief that, ‘Our most beautiful buildings must be in our poorest areas.’ Today, Medellín’s transformation has become a model for other cities in the developing world,’ declared CSD in its online announced of the 2009 winners.