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Danish
architect Jorn Utzon, Hon. FAIA, who designed the iconic Sydney Opera
House, has been selected as the 2003 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture
Prize. While best know for the Australian commission, which he won in
an international competition at the beginning of his career in 1957, Utzon
continued to influence the built environment with several other significant
works, including, according to the Pritzker jury, “handsome, humane
housing; a church that remains a master work with its remarkably lyrical
ceilings; as well as monumental public buildings for government and commerce.”
An
eye for the future
The jury citation notes that “Utzon has always been ahead of his
time. He rightly joins the handful of Modernists who have shaped the past
century with buildings of timeless and enduring quality.”
Few in their mind’s eye are unable to conjure
up a vision of the picturesque Sydney Opera House. The jury further comments,
“It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an
image of great beauty that has become known throughout the word—a
symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent.”
Frank
Gehry, FAIA, the 1989 Pritzker prize winner and a member of this year’s
jury, remarks on Utzon’s innovative work. “It is important
because Utzon made a building well ahead of its time, far ahead of available
technology, and he persevered through extraordinary malicious publicity
and negative criticism to build a building that changed the image of an
entire country. It is the first time in our lifetime that an epic piece
of architecture gained such universal presence.”
Construction of the Opera House began in 1959, but
lingered on for 14 years, during which time Utzon had a falling out with
Australian government officials over contracting and engineering issues.
He left Australia in 1966 and never returned, even to see his masterpiece
completed. In 1972, Utzon was invited to design the Kuwait National Assembly,
which was completed in 1982. His other projects, which are largely in
Denmark, include the Fredensborg Housing Estate (1959–62), Bagsvaerd
Church (1973–76), and the Skagen Nature Center (2001).
“In
a 40-year practice,” architecture critic and jury member Ada Louise
Huxtable observes, “each commission displays a continuing development
of ideas both subtle and bold, true to the teaching of early pioneers
of a ‘new’ architecture, but that cohere in a prescient way,
most visible now, to push the boundaries of architecture toward the present.”
Distinguished honor
Utzon, who turned 85 this week and is the first Dane to win the Prize,
will be honored in a May 20 ceremony at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts
in Madrid. He is in poor health and has retired to a house he designed
for himself on the island of Majorca. His two sons, Jan and Kim, continue
the practice of Utzon Architects in Haarby, Denmark. His daughter, Lin,
is an artist. Jan will accept the award, which includes a bronze medal
and a $100,000 grant, on his father’s behalf.
The
Pritzker Prize, established in 1979, honors living architects for consistent
and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through
the art of architecture. The award was set up by the Pritzker family of
Chicago and is administered by the family's Hyatt Foundation. Past recipients
have included Philip Johnson, FAIA; Luis Barragán, Hon. FAIA; Kevin
Roche, FAIA; I.M. Pei, FAIA; Richard Meier, FAIA; Tadao Ando, Hon. FAIA;
Frank Gehry, FAIA; Sir Norman Foster, Hon. FAIA; and Australian Glenn
Murcutt.
—Tracy F. Ostroff
Copyright 2003 The American Institute of Architects.
All rights reserved. Home Page
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This
year's Pritzker Prize jury members are:
• The Lord Rothschild, former chair of the National Gallery
Board of Trustees and the National Heritage Memorial Fund, who served
as jury chairman
• Giovanni Agnelli, chair emeritus, Fiat (now deceased)
• Ada Louise Huxtable, Hon. AIA, author and architecture critic
• Carlos Jimenez, Rice University School of Architecture professor
and principal, Carlos Jimenez Studio
• Frank O. Gehry, FAIA, architect and Pritzker Laureate 1989
• Jorge Silvetti, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Department of Architecture chair
• Bill Lacy, State University of New York at Purchase, who
served as executive director.
For a broader look at Utzon’s work, visit the Pritzker Architecture
Prize Web site.
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