The holder of this year's Pritzker Prize is Jean Nouvel

Photo by Christophe Petit-Tesson; Courtesy Ateliers Jean Nouvel

The committee awarding various honors across the Atlantic has a weakness for European legends this year. Renzo Piano was presented with the AIA Gold Medal at the end of February in the building of the Washington National Museum. Ten years ago, this Italian architect also received the Pritzker Prize and now he could consider it an honor to serve on the committee that selected the laureate for the jubilee 30th edition of this award. The thirty-second recipient (there were individuals selected in 1988 and 2001) of the Pritzker Prize is French architect Jean Nouvel. Similar to Piano, Nouvel also received recognition in America only with projects on this territory. His first building (Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis) on the American continent was completed less than two years ago, and it wasn't exactly the most successful introduction to the scene. He improved his reputation with a luxury apartment building on Mercer Street in New York. Everyone is now eagerly watching the lot in the neighborhood of New York's MoMA, where according to Nouvel's project, a 75-story skyscraper is to be built. Americans are gradually starting to find pleasure in Nouvel. For the rest of the world, this philosophical hi-tech architect and collector of Prouvé furniture is not such a surprise.
The committee for the Pritzker Prize never decides based on works from recent years, therefore we also plan to capture the professional career of this year's Pritzker Prize holder from the widest perspective possible in the coming days.