The University of Notre Dame selected Washington, D.C.–based architect David Schwarz, AIA, president and CEO of his eponymous firm, as the recipient of this year’s Richard H. Driehaus Prize for his work in architecture and sustainability.
Established in 2003, the Richard H. Driehaus Prize is awarded to a living architect whose work exemplifies the values of traditional and classical architecture in a contemporary built environment, and creates a positive cultural, environmental, and artistic impact.
In 1976, Schwarz founded David M. Schwarz Architects, a firm whose designs “illustrate how classical, traditional, and modern languages of architecture can be used to re-imagine the scale of these very large structures and successfully connect them to their communities,”said Michael Lykoudis, Driehaus Prize jury chair and Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture in a press release.
“Celebrating those who make substantive contributions to classical architecture in the modern world is essential to expanding the ideals of traditional and sustainable urbanism in contemporary life,” said Richard H. Driehaus, founder, chairman and chief investment officer of Chicago-based Driehaus Capital Management in the press release. “Therefore I am pleased with the selection of David Schwarz as the 2015 Richard H. Driehaus Prize laureate. His work has demonstrated how architecture can contribute to the creation of dynamic and strong communities.”
Schwarz will receive the $200,000 prize at a ceremony on March 21 in Chicago.
"I am both pleased and immensely flattered to be named the 2015 Driehaus Prize Laureate. I share Mr. Driehaus's commitment to supporting traditional architecture as a means of building sustainable communities and dynamic urban places and consider this a tremendous honor," said Schwarz. "The previous winners are the very best in the field and I am humbled to be amongst them."
This year’s Driehaus Prize jury consists of Adele Chatfield-Taylor, president emerita of the American Academy in Rome; Robert Davis, developer and founder of Seaside, Fla.; Paul Goldberger, Hon. AIA, Vanity Fair contributing editor; Léon Krier, architect and urban planner; Demetri Porphyrios, principal of Porphyrios Associates; and Witold Rybczynski, Hon. FAIA, ARCHITECT contributor and Meyerson Professor Emeritus of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.
