The Prince of Wales honored for his architectural patronage 

His Royal Highness Charles, Prince of Wales, accepted The Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame Patronage Award during a ceremony Jan. 27 at St. James’s Palace in London. (View The Prince of Wales' acceptance speech on YouTube.)

The Prince is a forceful advocate for the maintenance of traditional building skills and sustainable urban design and is keenly interested in how the built environment affects the quality of people’s lives. The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, a charity established personally by His Royal Highness, has led building and planning efforts in more than 62 communities in the United Kingdom along with the United States, Africa and Asia.

He received a bronze miniature of the Tower of the Winds and donated the $150,000 prize to his foundation to establish an undergraduate diploma course in sustainability and the building arts, as part of the charity’s building-skill program. “It is an element of education that I’ve long been desperate for my foundation to reintroduce,” Prince Charles said at the ceremony, “and I’m thrilled that, thanks to the incredible kindness of the Driehaus Foundation, it will be able to do so.”

The Prince of Wales’ efforts to create more sustainable and liveable communities, with an emphasis on putting people’s needs at the center of the building and urban design process, dates back more than two decades. On land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall in southern England, the Prince established the town of Poundbury in the early 1990s based on a master plan by architect and inaugural Richard H. Driehaus Prize laureate Léon Krier. Poundbury is a New Urbanist town notable for its high-density, mixed-use development, including homes and businesses built with traditional methods and sustainable local materials, including the market hall designed by British architect John Simpson.

The Patronage Award is the first of its kind presented through the Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame, now in its 10th year. The Patronage Award is a one-time honor to recognize the Prince’s tireless commitment to traditional architecture and sustainable urban design.

“Prince Charles has put the ideals of traditional architecture and urban design into practice around the world,” saidMichael Lykoudis, the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, who presented the award along with Richard H. Driehaus. “The inspiring results — from Haiti to the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, from China to the Galapagos Islands — illuminate the power of those ideals to create a more vibrant, beautiful and sustainable built environment.”

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 Architect and designer’s expansive body of work has enhanced the experience of everyday life   

Michael Graves, whose celebrated career redefined the architect’s role in society, has been named the recipient of the 2012 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. Graves, the tenth Driehaus Prize laureate, will receive $200,000 and a bronze miniature of the Choregic Monument of Lysikrates during a March 24 ceremony in Chicago. 

Graves is Founding Principal of the firm Michael Graves & Associates (MGA) and the Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, Emeritus at Princeton University, where he taught for 39 years. At Princeton, Graves reintroduced the principles of traditional and classical composition and also brought a dedication to urbanism to a modernist curriculum. Receiving the Rome Prize in 1960 as a scholar at the American Academy in Rome, where he is now a Trustee, Graves was influenced by “the timeless grammar” of architecture that he has applied to his own work. Members of the Driehaus Prize jury commended his commitment to the traditional city—in its human scale, complexity, and vitality—as emblematic of a time-tested sustainability. 

In structures such as the Portland (Oregon) Public Services Building and Humana Corporation headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, Graves’ designs are characterized for their attention to human scale and dignity. His concern for the character of his buildings extends to his interior design, the lighting, fixtures, and furniture that he regards as essential to the overall character he aspires to create.

Graves considers himself a “general practitioner.” His influential designs, extending from buildings including the iconic Denver Central Library to everyday objects such as his celebrated Alessi teakettle, reflect the breadth of his interests and the depth of his humanistic instincts. Attention to enhancing the user experience characterizes all his work, from luxury goods to products for Target Stores. The beauty and quality of ordinary objects, Graves believes, have the power to affect the soul.

Graves also views urbanism as a vital part of the built environment. His master plans impart a sense of community and place, while establishing a framework for sustainable, cohesive growth. For more than 12 years, MGA has been the campus master planner for Rice University, resulting in approximately 27 building projects, including three residential colleges for the North Campus.

“Michael Graves has enhanced not just the architecture profession with his talent and scholarship, but everyday life itself through his inspiring attention to beautiful and accessible design,” says Michael Lykoudis, Driehaus Prize Jury Chair and Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. “The quality and scope of his work have enhanced how people work, live, and interact in public and private realms, making a profound impact on American life.”

Established in 2003 through the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, the Richard H. Driehaus Prize honors lifetime contributions to traditional, classical, and sustainable architecture and urbanism in the modern world. The Driehaus Prize represents the most significant recognition for classicism in the contemporary built environment.

Recipients are selected by a jury comprised of Adele Chatfield-Taylor (President of the American Academy in Rome), Robert Davis (Developer and Founder of Seaside, Florida), Richard H. Driehaus (Founder and Chairman of Driehaus Capital Management), Paul Goldberger (Architecture Critic for The New Yorker), Léon Krier (Inaugural Driehaus Prize Laureate), Michael Lykoudis (Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture), and Witold Rybczynski (Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania and Architecture Critic for Slate).