not just because I left the RIBA in the Spring but because I’ve been away for a month, taking trains up the western coast of the US and Canada and then via the Rockies and Toronto to New York City. Of course I was still looking at buildings as well as bears and whales but it was nice not to have to write 500 words on each one. And it’s not as if they haven’t been written up before: Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (a great piece of city even if the interiors disappoint); Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim (ramps closed due a new installation but still great); Venturi Scott Brown’s Art Museum in Seattle (where the POMO flourishes look far more at home than they do in London – incidentally I was there to conduct a final piece of research for my architectural thriller, of which more later.)
Without me the RIBA has agreed on a Royal Gold Medallist – at last Paulo Mendes da Rocha whose work I’ve long admired from afar (why didn’t I take the time to go to Sao Paulo when I was in Rio and Brasilia making a film with Niemeyer?) And they’re close to deciding on the 21st Stirling winner (insert plug here for my latest book THE RIBA STIRLING PRIZE : 20, just published by Merrell with a lovely intro by David Chipperfield). I love AJ’s idea of setting up a parallel jury to see if they might agree with the official one, though given the composition of both that’s highly unlikely.
And (with me) the RIBA’s Awards Group will soon be deciding on the winners of the first RIBA Awards for International Excellence and the shortlist for the RIBA International Prize. I’ve seen four of the thirty myself – two unofficially while I was in New York, and two formally as a judge: Shigeru Ban’s Oita Prefecture Art Museum and Peter Stutchbury’s Invisible House in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Given the quality of those two there’s going to be some tough decision-making in the week after Stirling – for which I can’t wait. For once I can just enjoy it – and not know the result in advance.
GOOD TIMES TOGETHER with the Everly Brothers 