American Wins Pritzker Price

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Thomas Mayne, the bad boy of architecture for years before reaping international acclaim in his mid-50s, was named Sunday as the winner of the Pritzker Prize, the field's most prestigious honor.

Mayne, 61, is the first American to win the Pritzker in 14 years and only the eighth U.S. architect to win in the 27-year history of the contest.

The jury cited Mayne for creating a bold architectural style that reflects the "unique, somewhat rootless, culture of Southern California" through angular lines and an unfinished, open-ended feel.

"Thom Mayne is a product of the turbulent '60s who has carried that rebellious attitude and fervent desire for change into his practice, the fruits of which are only now becoming visible," the jury wrote.

For Mayne, winning the Pritzker is vindication for the years he spent struggling to maintain the purity of his unorthodox ideas. His stand earned him a reputation as an angry young man and alienated many clients.

"My whole essence was attempting to do something I believed in. I didn't understand how to negotiate that notion of the private and the public world," he said in an interview at Morphosis, his Santa Monica studio. "Your whole life you're told you're an outsider and you can't do that, and then you're honored for it."


Diamond Ranch High School
by Thomas Wayne's MORPHOSIS

Mayne will be awarded a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion on May 31 during a ceremony at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park. Past winners of the Pritzker Prize, sponsored by the family that developed the Hyatt Hotel chain, include I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano and Rem Koolhaas.

A look at Pritzker Prize winner Thomas Mayne.

_ Born: Jan. 19, 1944, Waterbury, Conn.

_ Residence: Santa Monica, Calif.

_ Family: Married, three sons.

_ Career: Founder of Morphosis design studio in Santa Monica; professor at University of California, Los Angeles; co-founder and board member, Southern California Institute of Architecture.

_ Education: Bachelor's degree, University of Southern California School of Architecture, 1968; Master's of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 1978.

_ Projects (partial list): Federal Building, San Francisco (pending); Satellite Operation Control Facility, Suitland, Md. (pending); Alaska State Capitol Building (pending); Caltrans District 7 Headquarters, Los Angeles (2004); ASE Design Center, Taipei, Taiwan (1997); Sun Tower, Seoul, Korea (1997); Cedar-Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles (1988).

_ Quote: "Architecture is a long-distance sport. You put your mind to it, and stay with it for 30 years, and then you're just getting started."