Architect Yvonne Farrell was at home in her kitchen on the evening of January 19, 2020, when she received a phone call from Martha Thorne, the executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The call brought news that has just been announced today: Farrell and Shelley McNamara, cofounders of Grafton Architects, are the 47th and 48th laureates of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. “It came out of the blue,” Farrell told RECORD, speaking last week by phone from an “inner sanctum” of the firm’s office. (The announcement was still under embargo, even from their colleagues.) “It was an incredible surprise. We are still excited about this incredible award and recognition.”
Farrell and McNamara co-founded Grafton Architects along with three others (who have since left) in 1978, in a 650-square-foot space on the top floor of a building on Grafton Street in Dublin. The firm name reflects its setting rather than its founders’ egos—a value that permeates their significant body of work in Ireland and abroad. “We thought about the ethos of making a cooperative practice, one that wouldn’t be related just to the individuals,” said McNamara. And besides, Farrell added, “Saying five names takes too long for a telephone answering machine.”
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