Time magazine recently selected Steven Holl as the best architect in the United States. This is an important prize, adding popular prestige to an already successful career as an architect. On the flip side, however, it throws a huge responsibility on Holl’s shoulders. Now, he is the best. His buildings immediately become objects of public scrutiny. From young architects to experienced scholars, people look at their buildings as intellectual references, and for a standard of our finest architecture. From general design to detail, every corner in Holl’s buildings is going to be studied and researched.
Prizes have many effects besides celerity. They point toward specific trends within the industry. Architectural prizes, like the Oscars, tend to award originality, innovation and risk. Purposefully, they don’t usually award simplicity, economy and common sense. They like innovative detailing but don’t really care about consistency. They praise flashy rhetoric as opposed to simple construction. If Holl’s Bellevue Art Museum is not an example of super hip architecture—like Gehry’s—it is also not an example of modest design.
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