The performing arts centre in Mumbai and (above) Johnson

The Pritzker Architecture Prize sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation is often called the Nobel Prize for architecture. It is awarded annually to a living architect whose work demonstrates talent, vision and commitment resulting in significant contribution to humanity and the built environment through architecture.

The bronze medallion awarded to the winner is based on the designs of Louis H. Sullivan, the Chicago architect acknowledged as the father of the skyscraper. The prize was established by the Hyatt Foundation in 1979.

Jay A. Pritzker, who founded the prize with his wife Cindy, died in 1999. His eldest son, Thomas J. Pritzker, has now become the president of the Hyatt Foundation.

Most procedures of the Pritzker Prize are modelled after the Nobel Prize. Awardees receive a $100,000 grant, a formal citation certificate, and since 1987, a bronze medallion. Earlier, a limited edition Henry Moore Sculpture was presented to each laureate.

In 1979, Philip Johnson of the US received the first Pritzker Prize. Johnson (1906-2005), born in Cleveland, is credited with “bringing” the modern style to the US when he curated an exhibition of works by European modernists such as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius at the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition was the result of the deep impact of modern architects in Europe on a young Johnson much before he became an architect.

According to critic Peter Blake, the exhibition played a part in shaping American architecture in the 20th century. The exhibits established three main principles of modern architecture — emphasis on architectural volumes over mass, rejection of symmetry and rejection of applied decoration.

Johnson continued to work as a proponent of modern architecture and arranged for Le Corbusier’s first visit to the US in 1935. Later, he brought Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer from Germany as émigrées.

During the Great Depression, Johnson became a journalist. He returned to join the US Army where he remained for a few years. He left the army to join the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

He became well known for his Glass House at New Caanan, Connecticut, built in 1949. It is a simple rectangular building with glass walls on all four sides, the only private area being a circular toilet and kitchen block at the centre. Privacy could be achieved by drawing full-length curtains across the glass walls. The completely unconventional building broke away from all traditions in the 1940s and established Johnson as a designer who thinks differently.

Through a career that spanned almost 60 years, Johnson designed many landmark buildings all over the world. The most prominent among them are The Nuclear Reactor at Rehovot, Israel, 1960, The Lincoln Centre at New York, 1964, The Crystal Cathedral at Los Angeles, 1980, AT&T Building (now Sony) at New York, 1984, and the National Centre of Performing Arts at Mumbai, India.