Pritzker Prize


See also: Pritzker Architecture Prize Recipients (table)Pritzker Architecture Prize Recipients
Year Recipient(s) Nation
1979 Philip Johnson United States
1980 Louis Barragan Mexico
1981 James Stirling Great Britain
1982 Kevin Roche United States
1983 I. M.
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Pritzker Prize,

officially

The Pritzker Architecture Prize

(prĭt`skər), award for excellence in architecture, given annually since 1979. Largely modeled on the Nobel PrizeNobel Prize,
award given for outstanding achievement in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, peace, or literature. The awards were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, who left a fund to provide annual prizes in the five areas listed above.
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, it is the premier architectural award in the United States and is named for the family that founded the prize; it is awarded by the Chicago-based Hyatt Foundation. Philip JohnsonJohnson, Philip Cortelyou,
1906–2005, American architect, museum curator, and historian, b. Cleveland, grad. Harvard Univ. (B.A., 1927). One of the first Americans to study modern European architecture, Johnson wrote (with H.-R.
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 was the first architect to be awarded the prize; other winners include James StirlingStirling, Sir James Frazer,
1924–92, British architect, b. Glasgow, grad. Univ. of Liverpool school of architecture (1950). Settling in London, Stirling worked in partnership (1956–63) with James Gowan, and became known for straightforward and functional modernist
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, I. M. PeiPei, I. M.
(Ieoh Ming Pei) , 1917–, Chinese-American architect, b. Guangzhou, China. Pei emigrated to the United States in 1935 and studied at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, where he taught from 1945 to 1948.
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, Richard MeierMeier, Richard
, 1934–, American architect, b. Newark, N.J., educated at Cornell. During the 1960s, he was a member of the New York "Five" or "white" architects, a group that emulated the early International style. In such projects as the Smith House in Darien, Conn.
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, Oscar Niemeyer SoaresNiemeyer Soares, Oscar
, 1907–2012, Brazil's foremost 20th-century architect, b. Rio de Janeiro. Influenced by Le Corbusier, Niemeyer developed an architecture noted for its daring conception, purity of line, and formal lyricism; it is frequently characterized by curving
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, Frank GehryGehry, Frank Owen
, 1929–, American architect, b. Toronto, Ont., as Frank Owen Goldberg. He is widely considered one of the finest and most artful of contemporary architects. In 1947, Gehry's family moved to Los Angeles, where he attended the Univ.
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, Robert VenturiVenturi, Robert,
1925–2018, American architect and architectural theorist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Princeton (B.A., 1947; M.F.A., 1950). An important and highly influential theorist, Venturi inveighed in his writings against the banality and simplicity of postwar modern
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, Rafael MoneoMoneo, Rafael
(José Rafael Moneo), 1937–, Spanish architect, b. Tudela, Navarre. He received undergraduate (1961) and doctoral (1965) degrees from the Madrid School of Architecture, worked (1960–61) with Danish architect Jørn Utzon, and studied (1963–65)
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, Renzo PianoPiano, Renzo
, 1937–, Italian architect, b. Genoa. Piano attended architecture school at Milan Polytechnic, graduating in 1964. The prolific Piano has been lauded for responding to the needs of each building site rather than cleaving to a single architectural style and has
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, Norman FosterFoster, Norman Robert, Baron Foster of Thames Bank,
1935–, British architect, b. Manchester, grad. Manchester Univ. school of architecture (1961), Yale school of architecture (M.A., 1962).
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, Rem KoolhaasKoolhaas, Rem
(Remmet Lucas Koolhaas), 1944–, Dutch architect, b. Rotterdam. He began his career as a journalist and screenwriter, moving to London in the late 1960s to study architecture.
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, Zaha HadidHadid, Dame Zaha,
1950–2016, British architect, b. Baghdad, studied American Univ., Beirut (1968–71), Architectural Association School, London (grad. 1977). A partner in Rem Koolhaas's Office for Metropolitan Architecture (1977–79), she established her own
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 (the first female recipient), Richard RogersRogers, Richard, Baron Rogers of Riverside,
1933–, British architect, b. Florence, Italy, studied Architectural Association, London (1954–59), Yale (M.Arch., 1962). With Norman Foster and two other architects he cofounded (1963) Team 4, his first firm.
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, and Jean NouvelNouvel, Jean
, 1945–, French architect, grad. École des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1971). He opened his own firm in 1975, and became known for innovative techniques, the use of modern materials, and for eschewing a signature style and letting the site, intended use,
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. See the table entitled Pritzker Architecture Prize RecipientsPritzker Architecture Prize Recipients
Year Recipient(s) Nation
1979 Philip Johnson United States
1980 Louis Barragan Mexico
1981 James Stirling Great Britain
1982 Kevin Roche United States
1983 I. M.
..... Click the link for more information.
 for a list of the architects who have been awarded the prize.

Bibliography

See study by M. Thorne (1999).