Earth-Friendly Architect Richard Rogers Wins Pritzker

Richard Rogers, the British architect whose iconic high-tech buildings have become landmarks in London and Paris, has been awarded architecture's highest award, the Pritzker Prize.

The choice, announced yesterday, brings overdue attention to a visionary who made a huge impact on the field more than two decades ago, with designs that seemed to turn architecture inside out, flamboyantly exposing what other builders usually hide -- girders, pipes and ducts. The Pritzker jury singled out his two most famous works, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (built with previous Pritzker laureate Renzo Piano) and the Lloyd's of London tower in their citation, and praised Rogers as "a humanist, who reminds us that architecture is the most social of arts."

Although a Rogers building is rising in Washington (his first in the city, an office building at 300 New Jersey Ave. NW), he has had a limited career in the United States. In Europe, however, the Pompidou Center and Lloyd's tower have long since overcome conservative skepticism to win over affection from the larger public. The long glass-enclosed escalators that cling to the sides of the Pompidou Center are popular for their spectacular views of Paris, and the plaza outside the museum and library facility is a favorite gathering place. The Lloyd's tower, which looks like a huge, upended camshaft torn from an engine, is one of the most distinctive and exciting forms on the skyline of a city that has had a troubled, often hostile relationship with contemporary architecture.

Victoria Newhouse, an architectural historian who sat on the jury that gave Rogers the $100,000 achievement award, said of his revolutionary early work, "It has withstood the test of time." Newhouse praised the Pompidou Center for "the whole idea of knocking art off its pedestal and making it a far more democratic experience," and called the Lloyd's tower "the most important embodiment of the high-tech movement."

But perhaps even more important than Rogers's buildings is his larger role as an advocate for urban planning, sustainable development and environmentally friendly "green" building techniques. "Throughout his long, innovative career, Rogers shows us that perhaps the architect's most lasting role is that of a good citizen of the world," read the citation.

"I suppose the implication of that is that I do a lot of urban planning and political work," said Rogers, 73, by phone from his office in London. Rogers has been a major player at the intersection of politics and architecture in England, serving as an adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, as chairman of a committee that has studied the state of the cities in England, and as a member of two panels that are overseeing design issues as the city of London prepares for the Olympics in 2012.

Rogers was knighted in 1991 and five years later made a life peer, taking the title Lord Rogers of Riverside. He also serves as an adviser to the mayor of London and the mayor of Barcelona.

Rogers, who will give an acceptance speech at the awards ceremony on June 4 (held at London's 17th-century Banqueting House), speaks passionately about cities, as civilizing centers of culture that can also minimize the environmental impact of man's footprint in the world.

"Global warming has helped us to concentrate our minds on the state of our cities," said Rogers. A concern for liberal causes has marked every step of Rogers's career. His firm donates almost a fifth of its annual profit to charity, and salaries are structured such that the highest paid architect earns only six times the salary of the lowest paid. Rogers said he would turn the $100,000 prize money over to the firm, and he expected they would decide to give it to charity.

"We work very much as a community, as a team," he said.

Even his two most memorable buildings, the Pompidou Center and the Lloyd's tower, have a political edge to them. By placing "mechanical" features in plain view, the buildings stand in a stark argument with a society and economic system in which unglamorous things such as manual labor and poverty are often hidden from view.

Rogers may be the first Pritzker winner to have had two former partners previously win the award, Piano in 1998 and Sir Norman Foster in 1999. Rogers parted amiably with both men and was unfazed by the belated attention.

"When you win an honor, it makes you happy and you don't worry too much about when you won," said Rogers. "Both Renzo and Norman are extremely close friends of mine."

The award comes as work proceeds on the construction of the Rogers-designed office building on New Jersey Avenue, a prime piece of real estate with stunning views of the Capitol. The building will feature an atrium that ties together two existing office buildings. Industrial metal walkways will pierce the windows of the older structures and the atrium will feature brightly colored metal beams or pipes that are a Rogers hallmark. Benjamin Jacobs, managing partner of the development firm building the project, the JBG companies, calls it an extraordinary building, both "sympathetic" to its surroundings and distinctive.

It also proved a test of Rogers's reputation as a pragmatic, easygoing architect, unconcerned about his star status. After plans for the project had sailed through the difficult and sometimes byzantine approval process for building in the District, Congress interceded and insisted that the 12-story building be lowered, citing security concerns about its proximity to the Capitol.

"Sir Richard is just an extraordinary gentleman," said Jacobs. "He realized the issue we were dealing with and he accommodated it." The new building will rise, according to the revised plans, 10 floors.