The University of Notre Dame annually presents the Driehaus Prize to a leading architect in the field of traditional architecture and urban design. The winner of this year’s prize, Jaquelin T. Robertson, is the fifth winner in a succession of renowned classical architects. In his architecture, Mr. Robertson establishes “human values into urban plans.” He has received a variety of awards in architecture and urbanism, including the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture and the Seaside Prize for his contributions to American Urbanism. A Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College in Oxford, he obtained his B.A. and Masters in Architecture from Yale University. His predecessors, from 2003 to 2006, are Leon Krier, Demetri Porphyrios, Quinlan Terry, and Allan Greenburg. The award is presented through the Notre Dame School of Architecture. The founder of the award, Mr. Richard H. Driehaus, chose Notre Dame for its commitment to the principles of traditional architecture and urbanism.
The Notre Dame School of Architecture has had to defend this commitment from critics. “Traditional architecture has more to do with the direction of architecture today than any radical modernist or rigid classicist would admit,” says Michael Lykoudis, Dean of the School of Architecture at Notre Dame. There is a general misinterpretation of what traditional architecture and urbanism offer to the world. Some critics consider the column and the entablature as relics of ancient architecture. They fail to see that every aspect of traditional architecture has a relationship to the human body and fits the human scale. Beyond the orders of classical architecture, students at Notre Dame are taught the principles of what makes good architecture and graduate with a deeply ingrained knowledge of the connection between architecture and human proportions. “Classicism as an education is about learning the larger picture. It is a systematic way to solve a problem,” states Dean Lykoudis.
Driehaus Prize laureate Demetri Porphyrios has written, “The classical is not about fluted shafts or polychrome pediments, because ‘classicism is not a style’. Classicism is not a doctrine; it is a philosophy of life. It is the philosophy of free will nurtured by tradition. What the classical claims is that there is and ought to be a balance between nature and man.” Notre Dame’s School of Architecture seeks to impart on this philosophy in its students. “The school allows the students to excel in professional practice. The Driehaus is the crown on that reputation,” says Dean Lykoudis.
The Jane Jacobs Medal award recognizing persons whose accomplishments represent principles of good urbanism. With the Pritzker and the Driehaus, there are now three honors to individuals demonstrating through professional practice the ability of architecture and urbanism to change a place for the good of humanity. Dean Lykoudis hopes that the presence of these three awards will repair the fragmentation that has occurred in architecture. “We’re not looking for a middle road, because that suggests compromise. We are being pulled by the extreme modernists and the narrow classicists. The Pritzker Prize, Driehaus Prize, and the Jane Jacobs Medal will begin a dialogue in architecture.”
Tiffney Tyng Gulick
