In London, the practice has many projects either newly-completed
or under develpment. These include a Bio-Medical Sciences Building for
Imperial College; headquarters towers for Citibank and the Hongkong and
Shanghai Bank at Canary Wharf; the Millennium Pedestrian Bridge across
the River Thames forming a new route between St. Paul's Cathedral and the
Tate Gallery of Modern Art and the Globe Theatre on Bankside; the World
Squares For All Central London master plan, yet another facet of the
firm's work in urban planning with the goal to reclaim Trafalgar Square
and Parliament Square for pedestrians while respecting the demands of traffic;
a new Wembley Stadium; and a parliament building for the Greater London
Authority on the banks of the Thames adjacent to Tower Bridge.
In the United States, Foster completed a new wing for the Joslyn
Museum in Omaha, Nebraska in 1994. Nearing completion in Palo Alto, California
is a 214,000 square-foot Center for Clinical Sciences Research at Stanford
University's Medical School.
As the Pritzker Architecture Prize begins its third decade of honoring
great architecture throughout the world, Thomas J. Pritzker, president
of The Hyatt Foundation, spoke of the jury's choice, saying, "The jury
has chosen an architect who cares passionately about the future of this
planet, an avowed optimist with a firm belief in technological progress,
but who also believes that architecture is about people and the quality
of life. He makes buildings that will not only last, but will work for
the people that use them, and in the process provide an uplifting experience."
The formal presentation of what has come to be known throughout the
world as architecture's highest honor will be made at a ceremony in Berlin
on June 7, 1999. At that time, Sir Norman will be presented with a $100,000
grant and a bronze medallion. He is the second Englishman to become a Pritzker
Laureate, the first being the late Sir James Stirling who was honored in
1981, and who encouraged a young Foster as he began his career in the early
sixties.
Foster has designed and built office towers in Tokyo, Japan and Frankfurt,
Germany and Hong Kong as well as a communications tower in Barcelona, Spain.
The world's largest airport in Hong Kong was presaged by London's Third
Airport at Stansted. He designed a rapid transit system for Bilbao, Spain
and has recently completed a station for London's underground Jubilee Line,
Canary Wharf , as well as the transport interchange at Greenwich. His global
output includes furniture, offices, showrooms, warehousing facilities and
industrial buildings, single residences and multiple housing units, schools,
bridges, art museums and galleries, universities, sports stadia, research
laboratories, shops, cultural centers, and libraries. And he designed one
project that is capable of moving all around the world, a180-foot private
motor yacht.
Foster attracted attention in 1971 when he was able to deliver a
permanent office building to IBM in Cosham, at the cost and within the
time-frame of temporary quarters. In 1975, Foster's modernist solution
for an office structure in Ipswich, England for Willis Faber & Dumas
brought the first international attention to his work. The three-storey,
glass-clad exterior followed irregular street patterns, reflecting its
surroundings by day, but becoming transparent at night to reveal the two
open plan office floors and a swimming pool on the ground level. The project
is considered a model of social responsiveness, as well as being ecologically
efficient. Within two years, he confirmed his ability to bring innovation
in both materials and design to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at
the University of East Anglia, Norwich.
On a much larger and international scale, in 1979, he received the
commission for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation's headquarters,
for which he designed a tower 47 stories above a ground floor plaza.
Foster's life comes close to being a Horatio Alger story. He was
born into a working class family in a suburb of Manchester, England in
1935, where the odds of his making a career in a profession were highly
unlikely. He attended a local high school and did well, showing an early
interest in architecture. After a series of odd jobs, and after his national
service in the Royal Air Force, he enrolled in Manchester University where
he won nearly every scholarship and fellowship available, eventually winning
one to attend Yale University in the United States.
Since his first commission some 35 years ago, he has won worldwide
acclaim for his modernist buildings, including his profession's highest
honors. In 1990, he received a Knighthood from the Queen of England and
in 1997 was appointed by the Queen to the Order of Merit.
Pritzker Prize jury chairman, J. Carter Brown, commented, "Rooted
in the grand tradition of 20th century modernism, Sir Norman Foster transcends
categorization. At whatever scale, from a glass elevator to an airport,
his vision forges the materials of our age into a crystalline, lyrical
purity that is highly personal, brilliantly functional, and — shy as we
are about using the word — just downright beautiful."
Bill Lacy, the executive director of the Pritzker Prize, quoted from
the jury citation which states, "His design objectives are guided not only
toward the overall beauty and function of a project, but for the well-being
of those people who will be the end-users. This social dimension to his
work translates as making every effort to transform and improve the quality
of life. In the early seventies, he pioneered the notion that the workplace
could be a pleasant environment."
Lacy, who is an architect himself and president of the State University
of New York at Purchase, added, "Sir Norman Foster's buildings set a standard
for design excellence in the use of modern technology pushed to its artistic
limits. His buildings represent the highest attainment of contemporary
architecture in the 20th century and will undoubtedly be the design standard
for much of the architecture of the next century."
The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to honor annually
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.
The distinguished jury that selected Sir Norman Foster as the 1999
Laureate consists of its founding chairman, J. Carter Brown, director emeritus of the National Gallery of Art, and chairman of the U.S. Commission of
Fine Arts; and alphabetically: Giovanni Agnelli, chairman of Fiat from
Torino, Italy; Ada Louise Huxtable, author and architectural critic of
New York; Toshio Nakamura, architectural writer/editor of Tokyo, Japan;
Jorge Silvetti, chairman, department of architecture, Harvard University
Graduate School of Design; and Lord Rothschild, chairman of the National
Heritage Memorial Fund of Great Britain and formerly the chairman of that
country's National Gallery.
The prize presentation ceremony moves to different locations around
the world each year, paying homage to historic and contemporary architecture.
This year's ceremony will be held in Berlin at the Altes Museum, designed
by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the 19th century, and the New National Gallery,
a 1967 Mies van der Rohe building.
Philip Johnson was the first Pritzker Laureate in 1979. Renzo Piano
of Italy was the 21st Laureate on the 20th anniversary this past year.
Two architects were named to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the prize
in 1988: the late Gordon Bunshaft of the United States and Oscar Niemeyer
of Brazil, hence the reason for 21 laureates in 20 years. There have been
seven laureates chosen from the United States, and with Sir Norman, 15
laureates from 11 other countries around the world.
The field of architecture was chosen by the Pritzker family because
of their keen interest in building due to their involvement with developing
the Hyatt Hotels around the world; also because architecture was a creative
endeavor not included in the Nobel Prizes. The procedures were modeled
after the Nobels, with the final selection being made by the international
jury with all deliberations and voting in secret. Nominations are continuous
from year to year with over 500 nominees from more than 40 countries being
considered each year.
# # #
Note: In addition to all of the detail about Sir Norman Foster
in the media kit,
you will find a wealth of information on the web site, www.fosterandpartners.com.
Past Laureates 
