Maurice Culot named 2019 Richard H. Driehaus Prize laureate https://t.co/esY8bO4O36 pic.twitter.com/X2mz99sQsr
— Notre Dame News (@nd_news) January 17, 2019
On Jan. 17, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana named Paris-based architect, urbanist, critic, and theorist Maurice Culot as its 2019 Richard H. Driehaus Prize laureate. Established in 2003 and named after the Chicago-based philanthropist, the annual award program recognizes a living architect for his or her “lifetime contributions to traditional, classical, and sustainable architecture and urbanism in the modern world,” according to a press release. Culot will be presented with a $200,000 prize on March 23 at a ceremony in Chicago.
Courtesy University of Notre Dame School of Architecture
The Tower of the Piazza, Val d'Europe, France (2010–13)The tower, characteristic of northern cities, rises above the roofline, the tallest construction of Val d’Europe. It stands as a beacon and the symbol of this Neo Traditional, new urbanist city conceived by EuroDisney.
Courtesy University of Notre Dame School of Architecture
Hôtel de Wignacourt. Paris (1999–2002)This 18th century residence located between court and garden was entirely transformed in 1940. The project constituted a rehabilitation of the facades and a reorganization of the interior. The original staircase, demolished, was reconstructed with the use of historic documentation.
A graduate of L’École de la Cambre in Brussels, Culot’s architectural and urbanist theory has inspired the “thinking and practice of architecture for generations,” according to the same release. Upon graduation from La Cambre, Culot completed a residency (1964–66) at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Ariz., and is currently serving as the president of ARCAS Architecture & Urbanism, with offices in France, Belgium, and Poland.
“Maurice Culot has had a remarkable influence on generations of architects and urbanists, leading the retrieval and dissemination of knowledge about what makes a city vibrant and livable,” said the Francis and Kathleen Rooney dean of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture and jury chair Michael Lykoudis, AIA, in a press release. “From publications, competitions, and prizes to the work of his own practice, Culot has made immense contributions to the improvement of cities around the world.”
Previous awardees include Paris-based architects Marc Breitman and Nada Breitman-Jakov (2018), Scottish architect Robert Adam (2017), Vero Beach, Fla.–based Scott Merrill, AIA (2016), and Washington, D.C.–based David Schwarz, AIA (2015), among others.
Chaired by Lykoudis, this year’s jury also included Robert Davis of the Seaside Institute; Melissa DelVecchio, AIA, of Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Paul Goldberger, Hon. AIA, of Vanity Fair; architect Léon Krier; Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, FAIA, of DPZ; Demetri Porphyrios of Porphyrios Associates; and Witold Rybczynski, Hon. FAIA, Meyerson professor emeritus of urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.
