ANDRÉS DUANY AND ELIZABETH PLATER-ZYBERK will receive the 2008 Driehaus Prize from the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame. The award recognizes individuals for their work in traditional, classical, and sustainable architecture and urbanism.
The winners, who are husband and wife, together head Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ), a Miami-based urban planning firm with almost 300 town plans in its portfolio. Early in their careers, they helped produce iconic modernist designs for Arquitectonica, but it was their plan for the resort town of Seaside in Florida's panhandle that cemented their reputation as the parents of New Urbanism. Plater-Zyberk is also dean of the University of Miami's School of Architecture. She and Duany co-authored the books Suburban Nation and The New Civic Art. “We celebrate Duany and Plater-Zyberk's accomplishments turning a vision for the public realm into reality,” said Notre Dame architecture dean and Driehaus Prize juror Michael Lykoudis.
The prize—which includes a 13-pound bronze and limestone trophy as well as $200,000—will be conferred in a Chicago ceremony in March 2008. Now in its sixth year, the award previously matched the $100,000 paycheck of the Pritzker Prize, but this year's laureates will benefit from the increased largesse of Chicago-based sponsor Richard H. Driehaus.
In addition to Lykoudis, the jury included Driehaus, critic Paul Goldberger, architect David Schwarz, Georgia Tech professor Elizabeth Dowling, and American Academy in Rome president Adele Chatfield-Taylor. Duany and Plater-Zyberk join past laureates Leon Krier, Demetri Porphyrios, Quinlan Terry, Allan Greenberg, and Jaquelin Robertson.
