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UCLA Professor Thom Mayne Named Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate

First American Winner in 14 Years of Architecture’s ‘Nobel Prize’

Architect Thom Mayne, a professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA and principal in the firm Morphosis, has been named the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. Mayne will receive the prize, which includes a $100,000 grant, at a formal award ceremony on May 31 in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion of Chicago’s Millennium Park.

The international Pritzker Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of architecture, was established in 1979 by the Pritzker family through their Hyatt Foundation and is awarded annually to a living architect whose built work “demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.” Mayne is the first American to win the award since 1991.

“We are enormously proud of Thom Mayne for receiving this extraordinary recognition,” said Christopher Waterman, dean of the School of the Arts and Architecture at UCLA. “Thom is not only a distinguished architect but a dedicated and inspiring teacher. We are fortunate indeed to count him among our stellar faculty who are training our future architects and artists.”

The Pritzker Prize jury citation calls Mayne “an authentic addition to the tradition of innovative, exciting architectural talent that flourishes on the West Coast.” His projects are “noted for their audacious character, bold designs and originality—both in their form and in their use of materials.” The international jury included Frank Gehry, architect and 1989 Pritzker Laureate, Los Angeles; Ada Louise Huxtable, author and architecture critic of the Wall Street Journal, New York; The Lord Palumbo, architectural patron, London; and Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of Vitra, Basel, Switzerland.

Mayne, who joined the UCLA faculty in 1993, is one of America’s most honored architects. His distinguished awards include the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy of Design in Rome (1987), Member Elect from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1992), and the American Institute of Architects (AIA)/ Los Angeles Gold Medal in
Architecture (2000). With Morphosis, Mayne has been the recipient of 25 Progressive Architecture (P/A) Awards, 54 AIA Awards and numerous other design recognitions.

Under Mayne’s leadership, the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design was awarded the 2005 P/A Award by Architecture magazine for “L.A. Now: Volume 3,” a massive research and urban design project that examines critically the imminent problems facing Los Angeles — overpopulation, housing and infrastructure. The award was unprecedented in that it was granted to only one recipient rather than to several, and was the first time the award was given to a university.
In addition to being a tenured professor at UCLA, Mayne has been active in the academic world throughout his career. He was a founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture and he has been a visiting professor and lecturer at institutions and universities around the world. He established the Santa Monica based architectural firm Morphosis with Jim Stafford in 1972.
Recent and current Morphosis projects include the San Francisco Federal Building; CALTRANS District Headquarters in Los Angeles; the University of Cincinnati Student Recreation Center; the Eugene Federal Courthouse in Oregon; the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Satellite Operation Facility in Maryland; the Science Center School for Los Angeles Unified School District; the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles; and Palenque Arena, Guadalajara, Mexico. Morphosis also won the competition for the design of a new Olympic Village that is part of New York City’s bid for the 2012 Olympic games.

Under Mayne’s direction, the firm has been the subject of various group and solo exhibitions throughout the world, and Morphosis buildings and projects are published extensively in prominent architectural publications worldwide. They have been the subject of 18 monographs, including three by Rizzoli, two by Korean Architect, two by El Croquis (Spain), and one by G.A. Japan.

Department background
The UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design immerses students in the contemporary state of architecture and works with them to advance the field. Students at UCLA integrate rigorous cultural, social and technological conditions into designs of formal persuasion, material conviction and intellectual innovation through four degree programs: two professional degrees (Master of Architecture I and II) and the M.A. and the Ph.D. in architecture.

Representative alumni include Rebecca Binder, recipient of an American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Honor Award and the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Award; Frederick Fisher, recipient of the Brendan Gill Award from the Municipal Arts Society of New York for the design of the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center; Hsin-Ming Fung, co-founder of Hodgetts + Fung Design and Architecture, whose projects include the new shell and stage area for the Hollywood Bowl and the renovation/restoration of the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood; (Hank) Koning and (Julie) Eizenberg, recognized for their groundbreaking work in housing and community-based projects and recipients of AIA honor awards; John Ruble, principal of Moore Ruble Yudell, whose projects include the United States Embassy in Berlin, Germany, Tegel
Harbor in Berlin, and master planning for the new Tacoma campus of the University of Washington; Patrick Tighe, principal of Tighe architecture, recipient of a 2004 AIA/LA Next Merit Award for affordable housing, Norwalk, Conn.; Billie Tsien, founding partner of Tod
Williams Billie Tsien and Associates, whose projects include the award-winning American Museum of Folk Art, New York; and Tom Wiscombe, principal of Emergent, recipient of a 2004 American Architecture Award for 2300 Live Oak, Los Angeles.

UCLArts
Artists, architects, dancers, designers, musicians and scholars come to the School of the Arts and Architecture at UCLA to draw on its unique curriculum, which interweaves work in performance, studio and research studies, providing them with a solid creative, artistic and intellectual foundation as well as a liberal arts education from one of the country’s finest research universities. Our students gain a global view of the arts while integrating contemporary practice and theory in their chosen discipline.

Providing a full range of course offerings and degree programs, the school is comprised of six degree-granting units — architecture and urban design, art, design | media arts, ethnomusicology, music, and world arts and cultures; two centers — the Center for Intercultural Performance and the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts; two museums — the Fowler and the Hammer; and a major performing arts program, UCLA Live.

UCLA
As a major research university, UCLA explores a broad range of subjects essential to creating real-world advances in health care, education, science, commerce, the arts and culture, scholarship, and community service. The wealth of cultural treasures and programs — museums and concert halls, theaters and dance studios, galleries and sculpture gardens, libraries and archives — makes UCLA a leading arts and cultural center of the west and the flagship arts campus of the University of California system.


For Immediate Use - April 8, 2005
Carolyn Campbell, ccampbel@arts.ucla.edu
(310) 825-6540

Caroline Blackburn, caroline.blackburn@aud.ucla.edu
(310) 267-4704