Jean Nouvel Wins Pritzker Prize

NEW YORK—The French architect Jean Nouvel has received architecture's top honor, the Pritzker Prize, reports the New York Times. The selection is to be announced today.

Nouvel, 62, is known for such bold and diverse structures as the Arab World Institute and Quai Branly museum in Paris and the blue-metal-clad Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. His current projects include a Louvre satellite in Abu Dhabi and a 75-story hotel and museum tower to be built next to MoMA in Manhattan that Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff says "promises to be the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation."

“For over 30 years Jean Nouvel has pushed architecture’s discourse and praxis to new limits,” the Pritzker jury said in its citation. “His inquisitive and agile mind propels him to take risks in each of his projects, which, regardless of varying degrees of success, have greatly expanded the vocabulary of contemporary architecture.”

Nouvel will receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion at a June 5 ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington.