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Richard Rogers, whose firm Richard Rogers Partnership is
headquartered in London, has been chosen as the 2007 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture
Prize. In accepting the prize he was critical of contemporary architecture, “We still haven’t achieved a high enough quality in terms of both buildings and public spaces in contemporary architecture. There’s a long way to go. If you take a trip to the Thames Gateway, it’s pretty disappointing to see what’s been built on one of the most beautiful rivers of the world. It’s basic stuff — if you take a boat down it you see that half the buildings look away from the river.”
The formal ceremony for what has come to be known throughout the world as
architecture’s highest honor will be held on June 4 in London. At that time, a $100,000 grant
and a bronze medallion will be bestowed on the 73-year old architect at The Banqueting
House, designed in 1619 by Inigo Jones.
In announcing the jury’s choice, Thomas J. Pritzker, president of The Hyatt
Foundation, quoted from the jury citation, “Born in Florence, Italy, and trained as an
architect in London, at the Architectural Association, and later, in the United States at
Yale University, Rogers has an outlook as urbane and expansive as his upbringing. In
his writings, through his role as advisor to policy making groups, as well as his large-scale
planning work, Rogers is a champion of urban life and believes in the potential of the city
to be a catalyst for social change.”
In Rogers’ own words, his vision is that cities of the future “will no longer be zoned
as today in isolated one-activity ghettos; rather they will resemble the more richly layered
cities of the past. Living, work, shopping, learning, and leisure will overlap and be housed
in continuous, varied and changing structures.”
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