Denise Scott Brown wins 2019 Lisbon Triennale Lifetime Achievement Award

From the Jane Drew Prize to the Soane Medal, Denise Scott Brown has been on a roll winning notable architecture accolades. Most recently, the influential architect, planner, urban designer, educator, writer, and theorist was announced as the 2019 recipient of the Lisbon Triennale Millennium Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognizes a firm or individual whose work and ideas have had a lasting influence on architectural theory and practice.

Since the 1960s, Scott Brown's vision has influenced students and architects worldwide and has impacted the evolution of architectural research — such as “Learning from Las Vegas” that she co-authored with her late partner Robert Venturi, to her 2009 anthology “AA Words 4: Having Words” that reflects on her 50 years of experience and practice.

“We are delighted to be able to recognize Denise Scott Brown for all she has contributed to the field of architecture and the built environment,” the award jury said in a statement. “At a time when architects, urban scholars and practitioners are invited to think through all of the scales of the built environment together, Denise Scott Brown’s work stands as an inspiring example of what is possible: moving beyond disciplinary boundaries to project new possibilities for architecture as a form of research and as practice. Lifetime achievements are often recognizing the past, but with this award we are thrilled to be celebrating Denise Scott Brown’s legacy for the future, as a gift to the next generations of architects around the world. Scott Brown taught us freedom.”

Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Lacaton & Vassal (2016), Kenneth Frampton (2013), Álvaro Siza (2010), and Vittorio Gregotti (2007).

The 2019 jury included: Amale Andraos, Cláudia Taborda, Enrique Walker, Éric Lapierre, Kunlé Adeyemi, Momoyo Kaijima, and Sharon Johnston.