“Three architects from different countries and divergent backgrounds have been named as Pritzker Architecture Prize jurors,” it was announced today by Thomas J. Pritzker, president of The Hyatt Foundation which established the prize in 1979. “The three are Shigeru Ban of Tokyo and Paris, Toshiko Mori of New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Renzo Piano of Genoa, Italy and Paris.”
They join jury chairman, Lord Palumbo, chairman of the Serpentine Gallery Trustees, former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain and well known as an art and architectural patron; and (alphabetically): Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, architect, planner and professor of architecture of Ahmedabad, India; Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of the board of Vitra in Birsfelden, Switzerland; Carlos Jimenez, professor at Rice University School of Architecture, and principal, Carlos Jimenez Studio in Houston, Texas; Victoria Newhouse, architectural historian and author who founded and is the director of the Architectural History Foundation in New York; and Karen Stein, editorial director of Phaidon Press in New York. (A complete history of the jury composition by years is available on the PritzkerPrize.com web site.) Frank Gehry, architect and 1989 Pritzker Laureate, who served as a juror from 1993-95, and more recently since 2003, has retired from the jury this year. Martha Thorne, formerly a curator of architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago, is executive director.
Jury chairman Lord Palumbo said, “The jury brings together a balance of practicing architects, educators, writers and leaders in the field of culture. These additions make our selection panel a truly international group, and each of the nine members has his or her own unique background for judging architecture.”
Piano, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998, is well known for his numerous public buildings located throughout the world, especially museums. His international career was launched with the Pompidou Center (1978) designed with Richard Rogers, and in 1980, he established his firm, Renzo Piano Building Workshop. With an extensive list of completed projects throughout the world and numerous prestigious awards, he recently completed the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, and has current projects under construction that include the New York Times building in Manhattan, an addition to the Art Institute of Chicago, and an expansion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Mori, a practicing architect with her own firm based in New York City, was named chair of the Department of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2002 where she has been Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture since 1995. Prior to that she was an associate professor at Cooper Union for 14 years. She also held the Eero Saarinen Professorship at Yale University in 1992. She was a visiting critic there and at Columbia University and has lectured extensively at academic institutions throughout the world. Born in Kobe, Japan, but residing in New York since high school, Mori trained first as a painter and then in architecture at Cooper Union. She established her own firm in 1981 which today is known for innovative use of materials and fabrication techniques. Her research and innovation on the subject has resulted in her participation in numerous symposia and exhibitions. Among her many publications is the well-known book, Immaterial/Ultramaterial: Architecture, Design, and Materials. In 2005, Ms. Mori received the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Medal of Honor from the New York City chapter of the AIA.
Ban established his own firm in his native city Tokyo in 1985, following graduation from the Cooper Union and earlier studies at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. His early work included dozens of unique small houses, exhibitions, and other projects involving the use of paper, wood and bamboo. He responded to the Kobe earthquake in 1995 with temporary emergency housing made primarily of paper tubes. He is a consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees developingtemporary shelters for refugees in Africa. Winner of numerous awards, he has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and designed the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany. He currently maintains his practice in Tokyo and Paris, and teaches at Keio University in the former city. Current commissions world wide include his design for the new Pompidou Center in Metz, France scheduled to break ground this autumn.
