Revenge of the Classicists: Driehaus Award to Pier Carlo Bontempi Saturday, Documentary on 'TTW Tonight

Isolato Sant'Anna, Pier Carlo Bontempi, architect (click images for larger view)

Monday was the Pritzker Architecture Prize's day in the sun, as Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was named the 2014 Laureate.  Saturday, we'll get the opposing viewpoint.

Chicago, ground central for modernism from Sullivan to Mies to Gang, has also spawned its own counter-reformation.  The School of Architecture at University of Notre Dame has become a hotbed of classicists, spurning the dominant architecture of the past century to advocate, in practice and polemics, for a return to traditional modes of design.

Chicago investment manager and philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus, who lovingly restored the former Nickerson Mansion and opened it to the public as the  Driehaus Museum, has been a key benefactor of this movement, and each year beginning in 2003 Notre Dame has presented the Richard H. Driehaus Prize, “awarded to a living architect whose work embodies the highest ideals of traditional and classical architecture in contemporary society, and creates a positive cultural, environmental, and artistic impact.”

Place de Toscane - Val di'Europe, France

This year's honoree is Italian architect Pier Carlo Bontempi.  His work, in the words of School of Architecture Dean Michael Lykoudis, “illustrates why the idea of the traditional city and its architecture are referred to

as ‘the original green.’ His buildings, seamlessly woven into their urban environments, demonstrate the principles of the new classicism and urbanism. Their durable construction, adaptive interior space and sensitive urban siting make them exemplars of architecture as an art of conservation and investment as opposed to consumption and waste.”

Adds architect Leon Krier, “Bontempi acquired his vast architectural knowledge and versatility by studying the rich fabric of Italy, the cities and landscapes he grew up in. The serenity, robustness, elegance and economy of his considerable built work provide exemplary models for better cities and buildings in the cities and towns of the future.”

The Driehaus's cash prize is $200,000, double that of the Pritzker.   In addition to the cash, the Pritzker Laureate receives a bronze medallion based on designs of Louis Sullivan.  The Driehaus winner gets a miniature bronze replica of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates in Athens, said to be  the first use of the Corinthian Order on a building's exterior.


This year's $50,000 Henry Hope Reed Award, presented to a non-architect whose work has supported the “traditional city” will be presented to Ruan Yisan, professor of architecture at Tongji University and a major activist in preserving traditional Chinese architecture from destruction in the country's massive wave of development and new construction.

To see this year's Pritzker Award ceremony June 13th, you'll have to follow President Obama's recent path to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and even then, it's an invitation-only.  The Driehaus Award, event, on the other hand, is always held in Chicago, and always open to the public, giving you a rare chance to see what's behind the massive classical facade of Marshall and Fox's French Renaissance-styled John B. Murphy Auditorium at 50 East Erie.  The ceremony takes place this Saturday, March 29th, at 11:00 a.m.

Another Driehaus tradition that the Pritzker might consider emulating is that each year a half-hour documentary is commissioned on the winning architect and his or her work.  This year's edition, A Taste for the Past, produced by Dan Andries, is hosted by Geoffrey Baer and includes an interview with Bontempi as well as looks at his work in Italy and Paris.  It debuts tonight, Thursday March 27th, 8:00 p.m. on WTTW, with rebroadcasts Friday the 28th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday March 30th at 6:30, plus Friday, March 28th at 2:00 p.m. on WTTW Prime (11.2) .  Sometime after, you'll also be able to watch the video on the documentary's website, which includes additional photos, videos and text.

Geoffrey Baer, Pier Carlo Bontempi

Photos from Richard H. Driehaus Award Ceremony

Some photos from Saturday's ceremony at the John B. Murphy Auditorium at which the 2013 Richard H. Driehaus Award at the University of Notre Dame was awarded to architect Thomas Beeby.

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Richard Driehaus

Demetri Porphyrios

Leon Krier

architectural historian David Watkin receives the 2013 Henry Hope Reed award from Dean of the Notre Dame School of Architecture Michael Lykoudis and Richard Driehaus

a new painting by Carl Laubin depicting work of Driehaus Prize Laureates

Thomas Beeby receives the 2013 Driehaus Award

Read: Master of Tradition: Thomas H. Beeby Receives 2013 Driehaus Award.

And speaking of classicism, here's a preview of what we're working on, a photograph of the original Sears Tower, as seen through the 1906 Pergola of the Sears complex at Homan and Arthington . . .

. . . the brick and terra cotta architecture of Tuscany naturally suggested itself as appropriate with such restrained use of brick patterns and terra cotta decoration as would be consistent.  Furthermore, the use of terra cotta decoration suggested the addition of color for backgrounds to accent such decoration.  Consequently, the lunettes and frieze of the Merchandise Tower are of glazed blue terra cotta; also the backgrounds of the book marks which decorate the Printing Building and the discs of the Power House are of white and blue glazed terra cotta.

Thomas Beeby receives Driehaus Prize Today, The Invisible Hand documentary (and outtakes) now online

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As we wrote earlier this week, architect Thomas H. Beeby has received the 2013 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame, “for his lifelong contribution to the human city and classical tradition.”  In the words of the Jury Citation, in the words of Demetri Porphyrios . . .

Tom Beeby has been a prolific architect and a much loved teacher.  As Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, between 1985 to 1991, Tom Beeby welcomed the study of history, propriety, character and style in architecture. Indeed, Beeby’s greatest contribution in the world of architecture has been his determination to work and think within the modernist and classical traditions at the same time. As such, he embarked on the journey of reconciling classical humanism with the industrial aesthetic of modernism. In awarding the Driehaus Prize to Tom Beeby, the jury celebrates the work of a dedicated architect and teacher for his lifelong commitment to the search for a common ground between the classical and the modern; the two most powerful architectural ideas of our century.

And while the award is about the classical, the ceremony is anything but elitist.  It is open to the public, and begins at 11:00 a.m. this morning (Saturday, March 23rd).  If last years ceremony, in which the award went to Michael Graves, is any indication, it will be a fascinating event, and an added bonus is the rare opportunity to get inside  Marshall and Fox's 1926 John B. Murphy Auditorium, 50 East Erie.  Architectural historian David Watkin will also be honored by receiving this year's Henry Hope Reed Award.

Michael Graves being presented the 2012 Richard H. Driehaus Prize

This Sunday, March 24th, you have one more chance to view the engaging documentary created in conjunction with the award, The Invisible Hand: Architect Thomas Beeby.  It airs at 10:30 p.m. on WTTW, Channel 11.

And if that doesn't work for, you can watch the documentary on-line here.  An added bonus of this page is that there's not just the documentary, but a series of shorter outtake videos from interviews with Beeby, Cynthia Weese, Stuart Cohen and Stanley Tigerman, who talks of the 70's group The Chicago Seven, whose stated - and realized - goal was to break that hammerlock of the heirs of Mies on Chicago architecture.  “It's interesting,” recalls Tigerman, ”the Chicago Seven is a group that has virtually nothing in common with each other.”

Read:
Master of Tradition:  Thomas Beeby receives Richard H. Driehaus award.