The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living
architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.”[1] Founded in 1979 by
Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the
Pritzker family and sponsored by the
Hyatt Foundation. It is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes, and is often
referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture.[2][3][4][5]
The Pritzker Architecture Prize claims to be awarded "irrespective of nationality, race, creed, or ideology".[6] The recipients receive US$100,000, a citation certificate, and, since 1987, a bronze medallion.[1] The designs on the medal are inspired by the work of architect
Louis Sullivan, while the Latin inspired inscription on the reverse of the medallion—firmitas, utilitas, venustas (English: firmness, commodity and delight)—is from
Ancient Roman architect
Vitruvius. Before 1987, a limited edition
Henry Moore sculpture accompanied the monetary prize.[1]
The Executive Director of the prize, Manuela Lucá-Dazio,[7] solicits nominations from a range of people, including past Laureates, academics, critics and others "with expertise and interest in the field of architecture".[6] Any licensed architect can also make a personal application for the prize before November 1 every year. (In 1988
Gordon Bunshaft nominated himself for the award and eventually won it.)[8] The jury, consisting of five to nine "experts ... recognized professionals in their own fields of architecture, business, education, publishing, and culture", deliberates and early in the following year announce the winner.[6] The prize Chair is the 2016 Pritzker laureate
Alejandro Aravena; earlier chairs were
J. Carter Brown (1979–2002), the
Lord Rothschild (2003–2004), the
Lord Palumbo (2005–2015),
Glenn Murcutt (2016–2018) and
Stephen Breyer (2019–2020).[9]
In 2013, the student organization "Women in Design" at the
Harvard Graduate School of Design started a petition arguing
Denise Scott Brown should receive joint recognition with her partner,
Robert Venturi, who won the award in 1991.[66] The petition, according to The New York Times, "reignited long-simmering tensions in the architectural world over whether women have been consistently denied the standing they deserve in a field whose most prestigious award was not given to a woman until 2004, when
Zaha Hadid won".[67] Scott Brown told
CNN that "as a woman, she had felt excluded by the elite of architecture throughout her career," and that "the Pritzker Prize was based on the fallacy that great architecture was the work of a 'single lone male genius' at the expense of collaborative work."[68] Responding to the petition, the prize jury said that it cannot revisit the decisions of past juries, either in the case of Scott Brown or that of
Lu Wenyu, whose husband
Wang Shu won in 2012.[69] The 2020 Pritzker jury said in its citation awarding the prize to
Yvonne Farrell and
Shelley McNamara – making them the fourth and fifth women to ever be awarded the prize – that they were, "pioneers in a field that has traditionally been and still is a male-dominated profession [and] beacons to others as they forge their exemplary professional path."[70]
"Past laureates". Pritzker Architecture Prize official site. The Hyatt Foundation. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
Specific
^
abc"History and Purpose/Ceremony". Pritzker Architecture Prize official site. The Hyatt Foundation.
Archived from the original on February 4, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
^
abEndicott, Katherine (October 14, 2006).
"The Mexican garden revisited". San Francisco Chronicle.
Archived from the original on September 19, 2011. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
^
abc"Nomination Process". Pritzker Architecture Prize official site. The Hyatt Foundation.
Archived from the original on February 4, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
^"2009 Jury Members". Pritzker Architecture Prize official site. The Hyatt Foundation.
Archived from the original on June 28, 2009. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
^Viladas, Pilar (August 19, 2001).
"Fashion's New Religion". The New York Times.
Archived from the original on November 22, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
^Pogrebin, Robin (April 17, 2013).
"Partner Without the Prize". The New York Times.
Archived from the original on April 18, 2013. Retrieved April 18, 2013.