Stressed Elements

A Prize Surprise

When the latest winner of the Driehaus Prize was announced, my initial thought was, “Who?”  Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil was a name I had never come across during my architectural career.  I was familiar with all the past winners prior to their winning their own miniature version of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates and was not surprised by their selection.  They were common names, thrown about in the small world of traditional architects and urbanists.  They all greatly influenced the growing traditional movement either through built works or academic writings.  And coincidentally, they had all worked primarily in America or Europe.

So, while trying to guess the next Driehaus Prize winner, El-Wakil was not even on my radar.  I had formulated my list of the first ten Driehaus winners and someone from the Middle East was far from it.  It was not due to a cultural bias, but rather a lack of familiarity with the architecture.  But after researching his background and projects, it is easy to see why he is one of the first eight Driehaus winners. 

However, it begs the question of who the remaining members of the first ten will be.  Will they be known more for their academic enterprises than their built works?  Will they lean more towards architecture than urbanism?  Will they represent non-western cultures such as China or India?  Or will the jury surprise us again in some other unexpected way?   The selection of El-Wakil as this year’s Driehaus Prize winner was a pleasant surprise and one that I hope may be repeated in the future.

Josh Eckert

Middle Eastern Architect Wins Driehaus Prize

Prominent Middle-Eastern architect Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil has been named the recipient of the 2009 Richard H. Driehaus Prize.  The prize, awarded to an individual whose work exemplifies the principles of traditional and classical architecture and urbanism, is awarded annually through the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture.  The prize consists of a bronze and stone replica of the Choregic monument of Lysikrates in Athens and an unrestricted cash prize of $200,000. 

Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1943, El-Wakil studied architecture and served as an instructor and lecturer at Ain-Shams University in Cairo until 1970.  While working on his thesis, he served as an apprentice under Hassan Fathy, one of the few proponents of traditional building methods at the time.  During his time as an apprentice, he decided to focus on an architecture based on the indigenous materials of the Middle East.

During the past four decades, El-Wakil has designed and built numerous public and private structures.  He is best known for his residences and a series of mosques for which he has received numerous international awards.  His Halawa House, a courtyard residence in Agamy, Egypt, earned him his first Aga Khan Award in 1980.  In the late 1980’s, he designed a group of mosques for the Saudi Arabian cities of Jeddah and Medina, including the great Quba’ Mosque, located on the site of the first mosque of Islam.  In 1989, he was awarded a second Aga Khan Award for his Corniche Mosque in Jeddah.

El-Wakil is the eighth recipient of the Driehaus Prize and the first from the Middle East.  Past recipients include Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberg (2008), Jaquelin T. Robertson (2007), Allan Greenberg (2006), Quinlan Terry (2005), Demetri Porphyrios (2004), and Leon Krier (2003).  El-Wakil was selected by a jury comprised of Richard H. Driehaus (Founder and Chairman of Driehaus Capital Management), Michael Lykoudis (Dean of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture), Paul Goldberger (Architecture Critic for “The New Yorker”), David M. Schwarz (Principal of David M. Schwarz Architects), Adele Chatfield-Taylor (President of the American Academy in Rome), Robert Davis (Partner at Arcadia Land Company and co-Founder of Seaside, Florida), and Leon Krier (architect, scholar and 2003 Driehaus Prize winner).

Josh Eckert

Illusive or Rooted?

For the first time since it was established in 2003, the Richard H. Diehaus Prize is honoring a non-Westerner. What does this mean for the tradition of Classicism? What does this mean for the future of Notre Dame's School of Architecture? Is this unique academic enclave having second thoughts about the omnipotence of our Western Classical language?

Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil, renowned for his traditional craftsmanship and leadership in Islamic architecture and culture, will be the 2009 recipient of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. His work – including the King Saud Mosque in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the Oxford University Centre for Islamic Studies in England – seeks balance, timelessness, and cultural reflection in traditional design principles. Yet is his architecture Classical?

To some, Classicism is a strict set of rules, hopelessly abstract and rarely attainable. Brunelleschi and Alberti, architectural cornerstones of the Italian Renaissance, sought a 'universally valid' architecture. Their designs approached freedom from intuition, artifice and subjective choice. I believe these illusive principles are no different than those that drove modernism to dominate in the twentieth century.

To others, Classicism is broad. It includes any attitudes or endeavors that use ideas and forms genetically derived from the Classical language of our predecessors. This Classicism is not applied, but generative. It assumes that design is rooted in cultural heritage, intuition, and choice. This Classicism is human and demands the highest degree of skill. It requires a particular strength of character, one who challenges him- or herself to speak the language of our ancestors.

For those who consider Classicism an abstract set of rules – to be applied with timidity and fear of the human soul, Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil does not fit the mold. But for those who find within them an insatiable desire to keep alive their cultural heritage in a world that worships scientific objectivity, Abdel-Wahed Ed Wakil is the truest Classicist yet honored by Notre Dame's Richard H. Driehaus Prize.

Crystal Olin

Not Swept Under the Current

Shared communities and treasured buildings often exist as a blurred stage set behind our bustling modern lives. We take for granted the built environment that shapes and defines us. If this environment were swept entirely under the current, what would become of humanity?  We need people like Fabio Grementieri, the 2009 Henry Hope Reed Award recipient, to ensure the survival of our built cultural heritage.

The Henry Hope Reed Award exists to honor those people – other than architects and designers – who influence and support the classical architecture movement. This heritage, if it is to survive and flourish, depends on the involvement of diverse fields and communities. Economics, geography, sociology, philosophy, ecology, religion, technology, development, preservation, writing, and education all play their part.

Fabio Grementieri is an Argentine scholar and preservationist. His education began at the University of Buenos Aires, where he studied architecture and historic preservation. This collaboration between design and preservation is woven throughout Mr. Grementieri's career. He serves both as a partner of the architectural practice Baez-Carena-Grementieri and as Director of the Preservation Program at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. His role in the survival and flourishing of Buenos Aires' cultural heritage is critical. For more than ten years, Mr. Grementieri has dedicated his life to preserving some of Argentina's most significant architectural treasures. The Palacio Bosch – which serves as the United States Embassy, Errázuriz Palace, Pereda Palace, and Villa Ocampo are prominent preservation projects Mr. Grementieri has directed as project manager. His preservation efforts, too numerous to list here, reach far and wide. Today, his passion is largely directed toward steering a campaign for the preservation of world-renowned opera house, Teatro Colón. Additionally, Grementieri and co-author Pablo Zunino will release a new book this week, Argentina's Cultural and National Heritage – The Bicentennial's Album.

A man who does not take his community and architectural heritage for granted, Fabio Grementieri is a deserving recipient of the 2009 Henry Hope Reed Award. More importantly, Mr. Grementieri serves as an inspiration to all those who comprehend the critical importance of cherishing our built environment.

Crystal Olin

A Lasting Tradition

There’s an upside to being an architect for the sun-drenched costal cities of Florida:  You see your work on TV and at the movies.  The first building by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk to enter the limelight was the Miami’s 1980 Atlantis condominium.  Through the center of the building, there is a cutout that houses a palm tree, a jacuzzi, and a bright red spiral staircase - the perfect modern backdrop for "Miami Vice".

Despite their acclaimed work for Arquitectonica, Duany and Plater-Zyberk set out in a new direction.  They decided organizing and creating a successful towns and cities was more important than designing individual buildings. Duany points to Seaside, a planned community in Florida, as the turning point.  "Without Seaside, we may have become architects of a different sort," he says. 

Seaside has been the inspiration and example for a successfully planned community.  It has also been a magnet for signature architects trying to get a piece of the pie.  The layout of the city allowed the wealth that comes with waterfront property to be spread more deeply inland, avoiding high rises and hotels on the beachfront that can separate the water’s amenities from inland areas.  Small businesses in the community have flourished and grown.

Gaining the ultimate imprimatur of the film industry, Seaside was the set for "The Truman Show," portraying the picture-perfect American town.  Cities across the US have followed the trend. Prospect New Town, located in Coloradoand fondly referred to as "toon-town" for its eclectic architectural styles, was so successful that plans have been made to incorporate the ideas of new urbanism into the development of several nearby towns and cities.

Despite its appeal for tinsel-town, the concepts and methods that Duany and Plater-Zyberk have so meticulously crafted will surely exceed the fleeting 15 minutes of fame, and will become a permanent part of how we plan our cities and towns in the future.

Kate Lenehan

Urbanism Rules

For the second consecutive year, the Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture has been presented to someone who has dedicated a large part of their career exclusively to urban design. The addition of Andres Duany & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk to the Driehaus Prize laureates means that a majority – four of the seven recipients to date – have been strongly focused on urbanism: Leon Krier, Jaquelin T. Robertson, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. 

Urban planning and new urbanism theories have become promising, popular, purposeful mainstream knowledge in recent years, with the advent of innovative urban development projects such as Seaside, Celebration, and Watercolor.  These examples draw more attention than the most stunning single building project because they interest people beyond the architecture community and give a glimpse into planning how people will live.  These towns have made appearances in such disparate publications as Time, the Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic. The projects help us wonder how urban planning concepts apply to our own towns and cities. They enable us to dream what it might be like to abandon the bumper-to-bumper, anxiety filled daily commute and walk to work in the morning.

The dominance of urbanists on the roster of Driehaus recipients may reflect a strong relationship between classical architecture and urbanism.  Classical architecture was not solely founded on aesthetic or tectonic considerations, but a careful respect for the way a building meets the ground and the type of urban environment that it creates.  Too often, contemporary “modern” projects present an aerial view of a sparkling glass conglomeration that reflects the sky and clouds from its many faceted panels. But we are hard pressed to find evidence that the architects took into rational consideration how pedestrians and residents would experience the building from the ground.

Whatever the explanation, the Driehaus Prize seems to be riding a wave that is bound to pick up speed and strength. With the failures of current cites and towns to recognize and respect human needs, the growth of the world's population, and environmental considerations an increasingly urgent concern, intelligent planning and architecture on a large scale may just be the saving grace of our towns and cities.

Perhaps the Pritzker Prize will soon follow this strong trend.

Kate Lenehan

Leveling the Field

In 1996, the Minneapolis Star Tribune dubbed architecture a “gentleman’s club,” with only 10% female and/or minority membership.  Change is occurring at the collegiate level; the percentage of women graduates from architecture schools now tops 40%.  But licensed female practitioners still make up only one quarter of the profession.  The number of principals or partners is remarkably small – about 1% – and the number of female “starchitects” is even smaller.

When asked to name a contemporary female architect, some – even many architecture students – might only be able to answer with “Zaha Hadid.”  Such is the invisibility of all too many women in this male-dominated field.

How did the Driehaus Prize manage to pay tribute to a woman after only five years when it took the Pritzker Prize more than twenty to honor Ms. Hadid?  Is this simply a way to solidify the Driehaus’ reputation as the “anti-Pritzker?”  Was it a self-conscious decision – an effort to be politically correct?  Not at all.

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk has made a powerful impact in her three decades in the architectural profession.  Designing more than two hundred communities in collaboration with her husband at their Miami-based firm DPZ and as cofounder of the Congress for New Urbanism, Ms. Plater-Zyberk has helped to change the face and content of architectural discourse and design.

It’s unfortunate that some see the partnership and the tandem nature of the award, especially given their marital status, as a negation of the “PZ” in DPZ.  Her curriculum vitae includes the same Yale Masters of Architecture degree as her husband and a long list of awards and myriad publications.  Yet the idea of coattails persists – a sad commentary on our culture.  The work done by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk should be understood as the accomplishments of equal partners.  

In addition, Plater-Zyberk has been the Dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture since 1995.  She has made a lasting contribution as an educator, developing perceptive design talent that will perpetuate her mission of building communities and serving as a mentor to her students.

We should not celebrate the fact that the Driehaus committee has selected a woman to receive its 2008 award, but that it has selected this woman.

Samantha L. Salden

Photo Credits: EPZ--The Atlantic Online, Seaside Aerial--www.manhattan.edu

The Underlying Current

Once again, the Driehaus Prize honors a Yalie. Actually, the 2008 installment premiates two of them.  Did we miss something?  Is this now an unstated requirement?  Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk have been a force to be reckoned with for twenty-five years.  They are quite deserving of the recognition, but isn’t it a bit fishy?  This Yale thing has to be more than a coincidence.

Leon Krier (2003 Laureate) and Demetri Porphyrios (2004) have taught at Yale.  Jaquelin T. Robertson (2007) and Allan Greenberg (2006) are alumni, as are Duany and Plater-Zyberk.  Only Quinlan Terry (2005) seems outside the umbrella.  Unlike the rest of the world operating with six degrees of separation, architecture is small and works within two or three.  So there must be a connection.  And thus, Quinlan’s son and partner, Francis, used to work for Greenberg in Washington, D.C.

Yale is world-renowned.  But how have they been connected with so many award-winning classical architects?  Notre Dame is touted as the only classically based architectural design program in America and the architecture school Plater-Zyberk heads at the University of Miami teaches principals of traditional urbanism and vernacular architecture.  In contrast, Yale’s School of Architecture proudly presents itself as a program without aesthetic agenda, only aiming to drive students intellectually.

In speaking of classicism and modernism, Yale Dean Robert A.M. Stern warns that “today's ‘ism’ has a way of becoming tomorrow's ‘wasm’.”  How does that produce classicists?  Were these talented, now award-winning designers drawn to Yale with fully formed, classical and traditional aesthetic ideas?  Does Yale teach a special form of salesmanship that makes this special breed more visible and therefore more appealing to award juries?  Or is there simply a secret handshake they’re not telling us about?

Is there hope for those of us in the classical ranks of the Irish and the Hurricanes?  Perhaps Ms. Plater-Zyberk’s award will open the doors a bit wider to other pedigrees.  In the meantime—just in case—does anyone have a spare Yale application?  I have a pen handy.

Samantha L. Salden

Urbanism and Classicism

The Driehaus Prize jury has taken a turn in their selections.  For the second year in a row, an urban designer—this time a pair of them—has been selected to receive the now $200,000 prize.  Classical architects with a variety of theoretical and built work were selected for the first four years of the award’s existence.  Now with the choice of Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk following last year’s recipient, Jaquelin T. Robertson, it’s reasonable to question whether the Driehaus Prize has become an award for urbanism.

To be sure, the husband and wife team and the talented group at the DPZ are best known for their work in codes, rewriting the guidelines that have strapped America into the suburban fast lane, helping to found the Congress for New Urbanism and designing more than two hundred new and infill communities, most notably 1981’s Seaside in the Florida panhandle.  They are, in short, both the godparents and poster children of the New Urbanist movement.
But this should not be a question of urbanism versus architecture.  It is instead an issue of scale for the two are one in the same. 

To design a building is a beautiful thing, but without relationship to context, the community or nature and its inhabitants, there is little value.  So too with good urbanism.  Traditional architecture and urbanism, if the two terms must both be used, are aimed at understanding hierarchy, decorum, relationship to the human scale and sustainable use of our natural resources.  Both allow powerful voices, but leave little room for the starchitect’s ego-driven aims opting instead for shared goals and the common good.  Quality is appropriate everywhere while elaboration knows its place.

Only in the last century or so have the dividing lines been drawn between planner and architect, landscape designer and interior designer.  Here’s to celebrating the erasure of those lines wherever possible by paying tribute to those who have crossed the boundaries and succeeded.

Samantha L. Salden

Sustainable Career

The built environment is not supported and improved solely by architects and designers.  It is a group effort involving many fields—economics, sociology, ecology, development, writing—and the Henry Hope Reed Award is unique in its recognition of this fact.  In the words of the prize committee, it is given “to an individual working outside the practice of architecture who has supported the cultivation of the traditional city, its architecture and art through writing, planning or promotion.”

The 2008 recipient of the award exemplifies commitment to the built environment and its connection to this wide variety of disciplines.  Roger Kennedy is an advocate, administrator, educator, author and scholar.  For him, sustainability has not been a fashion promulgated by celebrity spokespeople or a vice-presidential documentary, but a 50-year cause. 

Kennedy’s passion has focused not solely on building traditional communities, but on our broader responsibility to society and the earth.  He has served as special assistant to several Presidential cabinet members and been director of the National Park Service and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.  Through written works and now in conjunction with the Center for the Environment at Harvard University, he has worked for the preservation of natural resources and taken this “stewardship beyond preservation and into education.”

There is a complex connection between the built environment, the natural environment and human society.  The solutions required to solve such problems are often many-layered, requiring collaborative effort.  The answer is not simply waiting for the next “techno-fix,” but first recognition of “the humbling truth that the earth remains bountiful only if its rules are followed.”  Kennedy has supported the preservation of natural and built landmarks such as the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings in Colorado not out of nostalgia, but necessity.  He spoke eloquently of this in remarks on the 100th anniversary of the Antiquities Act in 2006.  These landmarks are an opportunity both to recognize the glorious successes of human development and to study the reasons for their downfall so that we might learn to recognize the effects of our own actions on the environment and to better care for our own society and resources in our own time.  It is not often that so many disciplines are ably undertaken by one person; Roger Kennedy’s tireless commitment to them all toward understanding and improving our environment, both natural and artifact, has been a unique inspiration.

Samantha L. Salden

Photo Credit: Diana Walker