Steven Holl, FAIA.
Courtesy Japan Art Association Steven Holl, FAIA.

The Japan Art Association announced today that Steven Holl, FAIA, has won the 2014 Praemium Imperiale. The award is a global arts prize bestowed annually since 1989 to candidates from five fields not recognized by the Nobel Prize: Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and theater/film. Artists are recognized for a career spent enriching the global arts community, and each receives 15 million yen (just shy of $150,000) and a medal, which will be presented at a ceremony in Tokyo on October 15. The Japan Art Association describes Holl’s philosophy toward practice as being made up of three parts: anchoring, or connection to the site; idea, or the design itself; and Phenomenon, or, as Holl describes it in a release, “the experience of the light and space and texture" of a place.

"I'm doubly grateful for this award because architecture is part of painting, sculpture, and music,” Holl said in a release, “With this award, the Japan Art Association recognizes all of the arts. Second, because my first chances as an architect and my first publication invitations came from Japan, and my first substantial construction was in Fukuoka, Japan in 1989, so I'm very grateful to come back to Japan for this important award."

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts expansion, to be constructed south of the existing facility, is composed of three connected pavilions that will house rehearsal space, as well as dedicated classroom space and multipurpose rooms for the Center's extensive arts education and arts management education programs.
Courtesy Steven Holl Architects The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts expansion, to be constructed south of the existing facility, is composed of three connected pavilions that will house rehearsal space, as well as dedicated classroom space and multipurpose rooms for the Center's extensive arts education and arts management education programs.
The award-winning Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Bloch Building addition, named “#1 Architectural Marvel of 2007” by Time Magazine, is composed of five interconnected structures that traverse from the existing building across its sculpture park to form new spaces and angles of vision.
Courtesy Japan Art Association | Photo by Andy Ryan The award-winning Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Bloch Building addition, named “#1 Architectural Marvel of 2007” by Time Magazine, is composed of five interconnected structures that traverse from the existing building across its sculpture park to form new spaces and angles of vision.
Hovering over a tropical garden, the LEED Platinum Horizontal Skyscraper—as long as the Empire State Building is tall—unites into one vision the headquarters for Vanke Co. ltd, office spaces, apartments, and a hotel, and generating the largest possible green space open to the public on the ground level.
Courtesy Japan Art Association | Photo by Iwan Baan Hovering over a tropical garden, the LEED Platinum Horizontal Skyscraper—as long as the Empire State Building is tall—unites into one vision the headquarters for Vanke Co. ltd, office spaces, apartments, and a hotel, and generating the largest possible green space open to the public on the ground level.
Located adjacent to Finland’s most important monument and opposite the National Parliament, Kiasma is both a national museum and a city landmark in the heart of Helsinki.
Courtesy Japan Art Association | Photo by Paul Warchol Located adjacent to Finland’s most important monument and opposite the National Parliament, Kiasma is both a national museum and a city landmark in the heart of Helsinki.

Holl joins an impressive list of past laureates that include inaugural winner I.M. Pei, FAIA, Frank Gehry, FAIA (1992), Kenzo Tange (1993), Tadao Ando, Hon. FAIA (1996), Alvaro Siza (1998), Rem Koolhaas, Hon. FAIA (2003), Frei Otto (2006), Zaha Hadid, Hon. FAIA (2009), and Toyo Ito, Hon. FAIA (2010). This year’s other winners include Giuseppe Penone (sculpture), Martial Raysse (painting), Arvo Pärt (music), and Athol Fugard (theater/film).

Sited to form a new campus quadrangle green space for Seattle University, the Chapel of St. Ignatius aims at different qualities of light, through a number of different volumes emerging from the roof.
Courtesy Japan Art Association | Photo by Paul Warchol Sited to form a new campus quadrangle green space for Seattle University, the Chapel of St. Ignatius aims at different qualities of light, through a number of different volumes emerging from the roof.

The Japan Art Association released the following video (in Japanese), which mentions Holl at 1:24 -