For the first time, the Royal Institute of British Architects has awarded the honor to a woman of her own right. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) named London-based architect Zaha Hadid as the winner of its 2016 Royal Gold Medal. Awarded annually since 1848 to individuals and groups who have had significant influence on the advancement of architecture, past recipients include Sir George Gilbert Scott (1859), Frank Lloyd Wright (1941), and Frank Gehry (2000). Hadid is the first woman to win the Royal Gold Medal independent of a partner in the history of the award.“We now see more

Photo © Amelia Stein John Tuomey and Sheila O'Donnell of O'Donnell + Tuomey Architects. The premiere architecture award in the UK—trumping even the annual Stirling Prize for best building—is the Royal Gold Medal, the annual award for individual long-term excellence that has existed since 1848. It is presented by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) with the approval of the monarch, and counts everyone from Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn to Richard Rogers and Archigram among its recipients. Each year a new name is chiseled into the stone-lined foyer of RIBA’s London headquarters—as will be, in early 2015, the names