The Biennale Architecture, Venice's 11th International Architecture Exhibition, will present Frank Gehry with its Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The board of the Foundation La Biennale di Venezia said that with the award, it hopes to stress the importance of experimentation in Gehry's work. Director Aaron Betsky, in his nomination of Gehry, wrote, "Frank Gehry has transformed modern architecture....As experimental as the art practices that have been his inspiration, Frank Gehry's architecture is the very modern model for an architecture beyond building."

The board will also present a special Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to a Historian of Architecture to American James S. Ackerman, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. Ackerman focuses on Renaissance architecture and is recognized by the board as "one of the scholars who created the modern history of architecture."