Statue of Liberty restoration architect awarded Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Richard Hayden, managing partner of Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (SHCA), has received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO). NECO serves as an umbrella for over 250 organizations that celebrate, educate and nurture ethnic pride, heritage, culture, tradition and commerce. NECO was created on the conviction of its founders that the diversity of the American people is what makes this nation great. Its mission is to honor and preserve this diversity and to foster tolerance, respect and understanding among religious and ethnic groups.

Established in 1986 by NECO, the Ellis Island Medals of Honor pay tribute to the ancestry groups that comprise America's unique cultural mosaic. Held each May on Ellis Island, the event is full of pageantry, grandeur and emotion. Past medallists include six U.S. Presidents as well as Nobel Prize winners and leaders of industry, education, the arts, sports and government.

Hayden became a partner at Swanke Hayden Connell Architects in 1972. He served as chief restoration architect for the Statue of Liberty and coauthored a book on the project. He is a past vice-president of the New York Chapter of the AIA, a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Historical Society and a Trustee of Syracuse University. He has served on a number of design juries and is a registered architect in both the United States and the United Kingdom.