Following Glenn Murcutt's retirement as the most recent chair, the Hyatt Foundation has announced that Justice Stephen Breyer will become the new head of the Pritzker Prize's seven-member jury. The U.S. Supreme Court Justice, who celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday, has sat on the panel that awards architecture’s greatest honor since 2011.
Though he never studied architecture, Breyer played a key role in advising the design and construction for the federal courthouse in Boston led by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. He also wrote the foreword to the book "Celebrating the Courthouse: A Guide for Architects, Their Clients, and the Public."
This made him a good choice to serve on the panel back in 2011, when the Prtizker's chairman at the time was hoping to expand the breadth of its jurors' experience. His new role is also not without precedent; Lord Peter Palumbo, a British property developer and art collector, served as chair from 2005 to 2016.
“It is with great pleasure that we designate Justice Breyer as Jury Chair,” said Tom Pritzker—the son of Jay A. Pritzker, whom founded the prize with wife Cindy back in 1979 and whose name is synonymous with Hyatt Hotels located throughout the world.
“His devotion to civic-minded architecture underscores the mission of the Prize and his unparalleled ability to guide a group deliberation is essential in creating a unified voice within this diverse and international panel of jurors” he added.
Breyer's well-honed powers to lead and deliberate will have him oversee the decision-making process for the 2019 Laureate, which will be announced next spring. The current crop of jurors consists of major critics, historians, educators, practitioners, and even some former Laureates themselves, including Richard Rogers, who won the prize in 2007; Kazuyo Sejima, who, together with partner Ryue Nishizawa, was awarded in 2010; and the 2012 Pritzker Laureate Wang Shu.
8 Comments
Congratulations to the 2019 Pritzker Winner, a bike lane
The political-first culture continues to get dumber and dumber. On the upside, Frank Gehry now has a shot at the open Supreme Court seat, amiright?
Juries are routinely made up of people with no qualifications. In this case somebody probably didn't understand the difference between architectural jurist and Supreme Court jurist.
This is clearly within the realm of the new “popular movie” category of the Oscars — institutions ruining what made their award special (or coverage/curation) by watering it down. Soon it will be another meaningless title that nobody bothers with, like New York Times architecture critic.
Why not just get rid of all the architects? Make it a battle every year between the Statue of Liberty, a McDonald’s menu and a micro housing dungeon I mean social housing block ?
“His devotion to civic-minded architecture underscores the mission of the Prize and his unparalleled ability to guide a group deliberation is essential in creating a unified voice within this diverse and international panel of jurors”
This rings true.
^ BLAH. He did a great job guiding the court in Citizens United.
Oof, ugh, Chemex did he vote for Citizens United? Fuck.
The answer appears to be he did join the Majority opinion (but only for Part IV) , yet he also joined Justice Steven's dissent.
"Congratulations to the 2019 Pritzker Winner, a bike lane"
There are some pretty cool bike lanes though:
This is the Van Gogh Path, a glow-in-the-dark solar powered bike path by Studio Roosegaarde in the Netherlands.
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