Krier wins Driehaus Prize

Author-architect honored for uniting classicism and urbanism. Leon Krier, the influential polemicist and innovative architect who laid theoretical groundwork for New Urbanism, was awarded the first annual Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. The prize, set up “to honor a major contributor in the field of traditional and classical architecture or historic preservation,” is conceived as an alternative to the famous Pritzker Prize, noted for honoring designers of flashy, stand-alone modernist buildings. Never has the Pritzker honored architecture that is classical or vernacular, or design which relates to how buildings fit together to form towns or cities. The Driehaus Prize, endowed by Chicago investor Driehaus and administered by the Notre Dame School of Architecture, will be different. Krier, for example, not only works in classical/vernacular styles, but is noted for changing the way architects think about cities as a whole. In giving the prize to Krier, the jury “had a sense that the first prize should be given to the individual who has made the largest single contribution to establishing classical architecture as something we have to take seriously today,” says Thomas Fisher, dean of the University of Minnesota’s school of architecture. Fisher, a member of the jury, adds that “it is harder to think of anybody who has had a bigger impact than Krier.” Classical in a broad sense The Driehaus will honor classical architecture in the broadest sense, notes Michael Lykoudis, chair of the Notre Dame architecture school and another member of the jury. Some recipients will be noted for individual buildings, while others can be expected to win for designs of overall communities. Still others may be interpreters of the vernacular, he adds. Only a handful of Krier’s buildings have been built, mostly in new urban type projects like Seaside and Windsor, both in Florida, and Prince Charles’s Poundbury, in Dorchester, England. Krier planned Poundbury, and is well known for his urban design work, consulting on many plans and projects. The prize was in recognition of Krier’s achievements as a polemicist — in addition to his impressive built work, says Lykoudis. “Without Leon Krier’s work, classicism, vernacular architecture, and urbanism would be thought of as distinct disciplines,” he says. “But he has been able to bring them all together.” Fisher notes that “one of the things that I most like about Krier’s work and his writings is that it’s not just about style. He’s envisioning a total way to build cities, with buildings on a smaller scale, divided into neighborhoods. He’s not just arguing for classical columns.” The jury was also looking for a candidate whose work is timeless and applicable to any place. “Leon’s work does not look like the classicism of the 1920s, or of the Renaissance, yet it is classicism just the same,” Lykoudis says. “You can take his ideas and apply them to China, or South America, and get something that is appropriate.” The first jury was strongly associated with New Urbanism. It included University of Miami architecture dean Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Cooper Robertson principal Jaquelin Robertson. The prize comes with $100,000 — the same amount as the Pritzker.