Along with her husband and partner-in-design Robert Venturi, it was announced on Twitter that 84-year-old Denise Scott Brown has been awarded the 2016 AIA Gold Medal. Denise Scott Brown, who spoke to Archinect earlier this year, did not win the Pritzker when it was awarded to Robert Venturi back in 1991, a glaring omission that has consistently been called out for redress in the architectural press (to no avail).
The AIA chose to recognize Scott-Brown and Venturi's work on The Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London and the Franklin Court Independence Historic National Park in Philadelphia as some of the numerous groundbreaking works that have rightfully placed Scott-Brown in one of architecture's most prestigious registers.
36 Comments
Yay, fantastic news!!!!
Also, Archinect, thank you so much for going with that young picture of Denise. We all know her current awesome grey blunt cut, but I love looking at pictures of people who are now older from when they were younger. It's likely that 20-somethings these days are much more savvy and reflective than I am, but when I was young I always had a hard time imagining old architects had much in common with me. To see Denise so young and vibrant and focused will, I hope, allow younger architects to relate to the dedication it takes, from a young, fired-up time of life and onward for decades, to achieve something as significant as the Gold Medal.
Congratulations to Denise!!!
Also here is a link to our conversation with Denise, as well as a conversation with the amazing - young - architect Katherine Darnstadt of Latent Design. It's a great listen.
Agreed. It's about danged time. Congratulations, DSB!
Good to see!
Yes, this is splendid good news, and a long overdue award for Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Robert Venturi was right to say to the AIA "not without Denise." This is also a very significant cultural event for American architecture and aesthetics. Their built work and ideas mark a significant advance in the evolution of Modern architecture.
A team's a team. Congratulations!
it is fantastic - i'd point out though that the headline seems totally contrary to the reason why this is historic. it's not because "she" won. it's because "they" won. together. and that they wouldn't have it any other way...
what they've opened the doors on is for collaborations to be recognized equally. and, frankly, for the aia (and i'm an officer in the organization) it's a big step forward - one which they've recognized for quite some time but had to scrape some of the crusty barnacles away to make happen. really glad to see it though.
Congrats, but their brand of postmodernism is a mistake--architecture is more than a parodied use of historical motifs or advertising billboards or diagrams, though we can see why they are used in our modern world.
Nate, what you are calling PoMo is not at all what VSBA proposed in their writings and work. Their work was co-opted by charlatan epigones.
Nate Hornblower, Venturi and Scott Brown's built work and designs are not parody, despite the irony found there. A mere caricature of their approach to making buildings won't do. Their references to history are sly and skillful, and their approach to design problems original, ergo:Gordon Wu Hall at Princeton on the Pritzker Prize website:
http://www.pritzkerprize.com/1991/works
And the Peter Brant vacation house in Vail Colorado:
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Brant_Ski_House.html
Or to put it another way: Venturi and Scott Brown have done lots of things in the third dimension . . .
Nobody ever shows the inside of these buildings... Always the outside. In the words of Venturi's mother, "uh, very nice house, thank you."
Their work was co-opted by charlatans or perhaps it was designed to be populist or even demogaugic--give the people what they want! either way, architecture has been a shite state of affairs since about 1970. Coincidence?
Nate, Here's a great interior by Venturi and Scott Brown, courtesy of their own website:
http://venturiscottbrown.org/pdfs/AlessiBiblioteca01.pdf
And, here's another, i.e. The Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London::
http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/mason/mason4-19-2.asp
Like I said, nobody shows the inside... Cause they look like the interior of Cesar's Palace
Damn, dude. Is that axe sharp enough yet?
Who is Cesar?
The Mother's House is a spatial delight. Masterful. And the interior-exterior relationship of the Seattle Art Museum is masterful, as well.
It's no Kahn, who did all the same things, minus the irony and plus the talent
I'm with Nate. Kudo's to DSB for being partially recognized (a slight in itself), but the Pritzker was wholly undeserved.
You can easily take DWL's sly and skillful references as justification for much of the shitty architecture - not just PoMo - that followed (as well as their own). This relates directly to the Let's talk about a building thread before the trolls got to it.
Their main contribution seems to have been to the discourse of architecture. Modernism was absolutist about its prohibition against traditional or historic ornament and forms. They said that through 'sly and skillful references', it was now acceptable. Once you open up pandora's box, it's hard to shut.
So then Nate, by your logic, it's fine to blame Kahn for this, right?
Not a fan of Franklin Court...
Not sure what ^ has to do with Kahn--not saying VSB is responsible for every bad Pomo project, just their own buildings and ideas... I mean, is there a VSB building on the level of a Fallingwater, Ronchamp, Empire State, Wainwright, Villa Mairea, (all pre-VSB counters to the never ending straw man theory of orthodox modernism that Venturi echoed)? I'm not sure what was the distinguishing feature of VSB other than the wrapping modernism in a Kitsch package or some kind of rebellion against the worst perceived idea of "modernism" using ironic deconstructist vernacular in the guise of some kind of fake Ivy League populism.
New and different is always better.
Which is of course why ever new and different thing is constantly being replaced by an even newer thing. The philosophy that justified this was of course brilliant for it's moment in time, as everything new is until the next new thing relegates it to the waste bin.
One of Venturi and Scott Brown's finest projects was the addition to the Yale Mathematics Building. Alas, it was never built; the trustees of Yale got cold feet. Ideally this link will bring up illustrations of this controversial design:
https://books.google.com/books?id=fqOsH3u1wJIC&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=venturi+rauch++yale+mathematics&source=bl&ots=ZVUwe7mJAq&sig=MrDVL6mdKnBJQJSn8fbn0-ddJ28&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwifmvaAq8HJAhUBMj4KHeV3D144ChDoAQgiMAM#v=onepage&q=venturi%20rauch%20%20yale%20mathematics&f=false
Never forget
http://www.arcspace.com/features/venturi-scott-brown--ass/provincial-capitol-building/
One of Venturi and Scott Brown's finest projects was ... never built
Thankfully. Unfortunately the Provincial Capitol Building was.
I'd like to see a defense of this building, as if this was about architecture. The problem with the Pritzker was probably having taste, their mistake thinking that awards were still about the art of architecture and not twitterati pleasing politics.
But, true to PoMo, this comment board started with a comment about DSB's youthful appearance. LOL.
Dear Mr. Hornblower:
Your comments are unfounded in truth:
1. Interiors of VSBA buildings are typically featured when their work is published, including majestic (stair hall at Sainsbury Wing, London), civic (assembly Hall, Toulouse) and merely brilliant (Vanna Venturi house, though this one a solo Venturi project), among many, many others. None of these resembles Cesar's Palace at all. On the contrary, they are thoughtful, functional, beautiful, frequently light-filled and occasionally sublime.
2. I haven't been to Toulouse, but having studied it in photos, drawings and models, it not only requires no defense (against what charge? That it is not about architecture? Huh??) but is praiseworthy for its brilliant parti, skillful balance of quotidian and unique, and beautiful mix of materials and scales. Incidentally, it is beloved by its users and residents of the City.
3. Vanna Venturi house is routinely compared with and contrasted to those other seminal modern houses you mention, Fallingwater and Villa Savoye, as one of the triumvirate of 20th century houses that encapsulate their respective eras. Your pomophobia is interfering with a recognition of this incontrovertible and historical fact. You should see it -- it's well worth the visit to any student of Architecture.
4. Interesting that Kahn enters this discussion, as he was in some ways the context out of which the young Venturi grew and ultimately distinguished himself from (and which Scott Brown as well was theoretically and professionally distinct, though in other ways). But this is another discussion.
I'm surprised by the vitriol and bitterness in your posts, but understand it as a vestige of the kind of argument waged against VSBA since the sixties, when establishment/conventional architects reacted with hostility and anger to their unconventional, groundbreaking designs and theories about architecture that upset, but ultimately transformed the status quo.
And do you resent that on top of her intellectual brilliance and design prowess, Denise Scott Brown was also a beautiful young woman? Don't be resentful -- celebrate it!
Your comments are unfounded in truth:
On the contrary, they are thoughtful, functional, beautiful, frequently light-filled and occasionally sublime.
is praiseworthy for its brilliant parti, skillful balance of quotidian and unique, and beautiful mix of materials and scales
Those are not truths (facts), they are opinions.
Those are not truths (facts), they are opinions.
Talk about the motherfucking pot calling the goddam kettle black.
Miles' opinion about what is a fact or opinion is a fact, in my opinion.
I do not understand what the Mythical King of Thebes(Oedipus) and a fictional farmer(Pa Kettle) from Washington have to do with a Post Modern house in Pennsylvania, but you have the ball, so run with it.
That's a great post, revitts! Thank you. I haven't thought about the Toulouse project in a long time, but it is indeed a wonderful, and very large-scale, project. Great ideas about urbanism in there.
Even though the AIA Gold Metal has been going on for a longer time, it is a lot more impressive than the Pritzker.
^ edit^ the list is more impressive.
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