Jean Nouvel Wins Pritzker Architecture Prize

The prize carries a $100,000 grant.

Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 4/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

French architect Jean Nouvel has been named the 2008 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architect's highest honor. Celebrating its 30th year, the Pritzker Prize has been awarded to industry heavy weights such as Renzo Piano, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Thom Mayne, I. M. Pei, and Frank Gehry, to name a few. 

The 62-year-old Nouvel will receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion at the Library of Congress, which convenes June 2. His completed projects--a list of over 200--include the Institut du Monde Arabe (1989); the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis (2006), the 75-story Tour Verre in New York, the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris (1994), and Expo 2002 in Switzerland.

"Of the many phrases that might be used to describe the career of architect Jean Nouvel, foremost are those that emphasize his courageous pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of accepted norms in order to stretch the boundaries of the field," said Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of the Hyatt Foundation, quoting from the jury citation.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize was launched in 1979 as tribute to a living architect "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."

Nouvel is the second laureate from France -- Christian de Portzamparc took the prize in 1994.