The Driehaus Prize is awarded to an architect whose work embodies the principles of traditional and classical architecture in contemporary society.
Jaquelin T. Robertson, an architect and urban planner whose distinguished career has spanned continents, has been named the recipient of the fifth-annual Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. Mr. Robertson received $100,000 and a model of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates during ceremonies March 31 in Chicago.
A partner in the firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners, Mr. Robertson founded the New York City Urban Design Group. He served under John Lindsay as the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Midtown Planning and Development and worked as a New York City Planning Commissioner. In 1975, Mr. Robertson directed the design of Iran’s new capital center, Shahestan Pahlavi.
Committed to introducing “human values into urban plans,” he founded the Jeffersonian Restoration Advisory Board and the Mayor’s Institute on City Design. He has been a consultant to the Ford Foundation, the Government of Jamaica, the Federal Highway Administration, and the National Capitol Development Commission in Canberra, Australia. To “learn more about the DNA of American architecture,” Mr. Robertson accepted an appointment as Dean of the School and Commonwealth Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia in 1980, a position he held for eight years.
Mr. Robertson has received numerous design awards, including the 1998 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture and the 2002 Seaside Prize for his contributions to American urbanism. A Richmond, Virginia native, Mr. Robertson received his B.A. and M.Arch. from Yale University and was a Rhode Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford.
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"Architecture and urbanism, always together. It's not the individual buildings but the aggregation of buildings, the urban setting, that really defines great architectural cultures,"
--- Jaquelin T. Robertson
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Edward Perry Bass, president of Fine Line, Inc., a private diversified investment and venture capital firm in Fort Worth, Texas, received the $25,000 Henry Hope Reed Award in association with the Driehaus Prize. Mr. Bass is recognized as a leader in one of the most successful urban revitalization efforts in the nation. He and his family developed Sundance Square into a successful mixed-use urban core in Forth Worth. As chairman of Performing Arts Fort Worth, Mr. Bass led the development of the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall, which opened in 1998 to international acclaim.
Robertson Images
> New Albany Country Club, Columbus, Ohio
> Private Residence, Southampton, NY
> WaterColor Town Center, Walton County, Florida
> Celebration, Celebration, Florida
> back to driehausprize.org
About Richard H. Driehaus
Richard
H. Driehaus, a life-long Chicago resident, has enjoyed business
success earning a reputation within the investment management industry
as an accomplished investor. In addition to his career, he has also
focused his attention and energy on a variety of philanthropic and community-service
oriented projects, individually and through the efforts of the Richard
H. Driehaus Foundation.
Many of Mr. Driehaus' charitable endeavors have been devoted to DePaul University where he received his B.S.C. degree in 1965 and an M.B.A in 1970. He has endowed DePaul's Driehaus Center for International Business Studies and the Richard H. Driehaus Center in Behavioral Finance. Mr. Driehaus has also provided scholarships to full-time M.B.A. candidates.
Having a strong commitment to historic preservation and design excellence, Mr. Driehaus' efforts have included the restoration of the Ransom Cable House in Chicago and the award-winning restoration of a 1905 Georgian Revival style country house in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He has also made major contributions for the restoration of Old St. Patrick's Church and St. Ignatius High School in Chicago. Mr. Driehaus is involved in the activities of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, the Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation and several preservation organizations in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has also been involved in the preservation and restoration of historic homes in the Bronzeville and Prairie Avenue Districts of Chicago, as well as a variety of religious-oriented restoration projects.
Mr. Driehaus has promoted design excellence through his sponsorship of a design competition for a campus center building at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and his funding of Herman Driehaus scholarships at IIT for five years. He sponsored the Millennium Gate Foundation design charrette that resulted in the conceptual design of this monumental entry at Washington's Barney Circle, and has also sponsored design competitions to produce designs for Chicago Public Schools and non-profit public housing. Mr. Driehaus also supports design programs at the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Architecture and the Arts. In addition, the Richard H. Driehaus Museum at Navy Pier in Chicago features significant Tiffany stained glass pieces from Mr. Driehaus' personal collection.
The
Choregic Monument of Lysikrates in Athens is best known as the first
use of the Corinthian Order on the outside of a building. This exquisite
monument is minor in size but has served as an expression of Corinthian
elegance in exterior and interior applications throughout the United
States and Europe. The monument, one of the most delightful remains
of Hellenistic antiquity, was initially built as a monumental base to
support a now-lost bronze tripod won by a young man as the trophy for
a musical competition in 334 B.C. His proud parents exalted this victory
by constructing a blue-marble structure from Mount Hymetos not only
to raise the bronze tripod on a pedestal, but to create a lasting architectural
icon. The square base supports a cylindrical tower surrounded by six
columns of white marble from Mount Penteli, the same marble used in
the Parthenon. The number of columns is divided in half to culminate
in a three-pronged finial covered with intertwining acanthus leaves
and stalks that provided the rests for the tripod.
The Choregic Monument of Lysikratis Award, created by Chicago artist Michael Chupich, is a sculpted scale model of the original monument created using miniature tools specifically designed for the piece and molded using a lost wax process from which the bronze monument is cast. The bronze casting sits upon a hand-cut limestone base with engraved bronze plates. The award measures 11.5 inches tall, 3.5 inches wide, and weighs 12 pounds.
> View photos of the 2006 reception honoring Allan Greenberg and David Morton
> View photos of the 2005 reception honoring Quinlan Terry and Henry Hope Reed
> View photos of the 2004 reception honoring Demetri Porphyrios
