German Architect Gottfried Böhm is the 1986 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate
Gottfried Böhm, a third generation architect from Cologne, Federal Republic of Germany, was announced today as the 1986 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. He is the eighth recipient of the prestigious international award, and the fourth to be selected from outside the United States.
Böhm's work is primarily in Europe, but he has designed buildings in Formosa and Brazil as well. Such projects as the City Hall of Bensberg, the Church of the Pilgrimage at. Neviges, and the Zueblin corporate building in Stuttgart have brought international acclaim.
Jay A. Pritzker, president of The Hyatt Foundation, which established the prize in 1979 to reward a creative endeavor not honored by the Nobel Prizes, presented a $100,000 tax-free grant to Böhm today at The Museum of Modern Art. A formal award ceremony will be held at the Goldsmiths' Hall in London on May 7. At that time, Böhm will receive the symbol of the prize, a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore.
Pritzker described Böhm as "an excellent choice by our distinguished jury. Each of the Laureates has been honored for achievements demonstrating a combination of talent, vision, and commitment that consistently produces work to enhance the environment, and therefore humanity as well. Böhm's buildings excel by all of these criteria."
Noted author and journalist Brendan Gill, secretary to the Pritzker jury, announced Böhm as the 1986 Laureate to an impressive gathering of architects and architectural writers. He praised Böhm's work, saying, "As little known in the United States as he is well-known in Europe, for forty years Böhm has succeeded in interpreting and transforming the architectural riches of past centuries into contemporary structures, thrilling in themselves."
The jury making the selection consisted of J. Carter Brown, director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., who served as chairman; Giovanni Agnelli, chairman of Fiat in Torino, Italy; Thomas J. Watson, chairman emeritus of IBM Corporation; and three architects, Ricardo Legorreta of Mexico City, Fumihiko Maki of Tokyo; and 1982 Pritzker Prize Laureate, Kevin Roche of Hamden, Connecticut.