Robert A. M. Stern Named 2011 Driehaus Prize Laureate

Robert A. M. Stern has been named the 2011 recipient of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. Stern will receive $200,000 and a model of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates during a March 26, 2011, ceremony in Chicago.

As Founder and Senior Partner of Robert A. M. Stern Architects, and as Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, Stern has built a reputation as a modern traditionalist architect. In his work as an architect, as a scholar, and as a teacher, he is dedicated to reconnecting the present and future with the past, building upon what went before to extend the trajectory of architecture.

"More than any other practicing architect today, Bob Stern has brought classicism into the public realm and the mainstream of the profession, reinvigorating it for generations to come. We are honored to have him among the Driehaus Prize laureates," said Michael Lykoudis, Driehaus Prize Jury Chairman and Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture.

"It's a great honor, one that I take very, very seriously because so many of the friends and colleagues I admire the most in the profession have been awarded the Prize in the past," said Robert A.M. Stern. "The Driehaus Prize recognizes that one can pursue the great tradition of architecture that goes back thousands of years—both the principles of classical architecture and the humanism that they embody—to go forward in our modern world."

"Beauty, harmony and context are hallmarks of classical architecture, thus fostering communities, enhancing the quality of our shared environment and developing sustainable solutions through traditional materials," said Richard H. Driehaus, the Chicago philanthropist who has established the $200,000 Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture to honor a major contributor to the field.

The Driehaus Prize has been presented annually since 2003 to a living architect whose work embodies the principles of traditional and classical architecture and urbanism in contemporary society, and creates a positive cultural, environmental, and artistic impact.