Eduardo Souto de Moura wins 2019 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura as the the 2019 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize winner. Started in 1955, the prize awards US$20,000 to an architect of any nationality who has made a significant contribution to architecture as an art. Previous winners of the last few years include Phyllis Lambert, Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey, Alberto Campo Baeza, Kathryn Gustafson, and Diébédo Francis Kéré.

Selected from a group of 33 nominated individuals, the Pritzker Prize winning architect was recognized for an architecture that is described by the jury chair, Annabelle Selldorf, as "[feeling] inevitable" and having a "timeless and profoundly humanist quality."  He was honored for a body of work that includes notable projects such as the Estádio Municipal de Braga in Braga, Portugal (2003), the Burgo Tower in Burgo, Portugal (2007), and the Paula Rego Museum in Cascais, Portugal (2009). Annabelle Selldorf, chair of the jury, said of Souto de Moura's architecture 

In addition, the jury awarded four $10,000 Arts and Letters Awards to: Hernan Diaz Alonso, the director of SCI-Arc and principal of HDA-x creative agency (formerly Xefirotarch), for his influence on the future of architecture; Mario Gooden and Mabel O Wilson, who run the Global Africa Lab at Columbia's GSAPP, for advocating for a more just world; Eric Höweler and Meejin Yoon of Höweler + Yoon, for their innovative forms and structures; and Anne Rieselbach, the Program Director at the Architectural League of New York, for supporting the exploration of new ideas in urban design and architecture.

Winners will be presented with their awards during the Academy's annual Ceremonial in New York City this May.

The 2017 jury featured: Annabelle Selldorf (chair), Henry N. Cobb, Kenneth Frampton, Steven Holl, Thom Mayne, Laurie Olin, James Polshek, Billie Tsien, and Tod Williams.