Thomas Beeby

The Richard H. Driehaus Prize, an annual award endowed with $200,000 and granted since 2003 by the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, went in 2013 to Thomas Beeby. Born in 1941 in Oak Park (Illinois), Beeby was part of the Chicago Seven group in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1971 he founded his own studio (HBRA) with James Hammond, always making his professional career compatible with his academic activity, first teaching at the Illinois Insitute of Technology, as Director of the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and as Dean of the Yale University School of Architecture. In 1991 Beeby was made Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. The Driehaus jury, including Adele Chatfield-Taylor, Robert Davis, Paul Goldberger, Léon Krier, Demetri Porphyrios and Witold Rybczynski, commended Beeby’s role in the diffusion of the principles of classical architecture, with works like the Federal Building and Courthouse in Tuscaloosa (Alabama), recently completed. The list of previous recipients includes Robert Stern, Michael Graves, Léon Krier and the Spaniard Rafael Manzano Martos.