he following letter was written by my pal Rick Grol up in Calgary and edited by yours truly. It provides a good argument for why the enfant terrible of architecture should be recognised for his achievements. It was sent to the Pritzker Architecture Prize committee in a slightly altered form in early March 2000. For those of you who don't know, the Pritzker Prize is like the Nobel Prize of architecture.

Bill Lacey
Executive Director of the Pritzker Prize

Dear Mr. Lacey,

I am writing you in regards to the Pritzker Prize. I do not know if there are any requirements for nominations for the Pritzker Prize, but I hereby take the freedom to send you a nomination for the Prize in 2000. I would like to nominate Rem Koolhaas of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for the 2000 Pritzker Prize and for the following years if he is not awarded for that year.

Although I am not an architect, but rather a citizen who over the years has developed a great interest in architecture, I follow the developments of the architectural world intensely. I do not remember who said, "Architecture is the art of the possible," but there is a lot of truth in this statement, especially when taking Koolhaas's work into account. Somehow it compliments the words of the first Pritzker laureate, Philip Johnson, who spoke when he was awarded the prize, "The prize is for the art of architecture." The unconventional work of Rem Koolhaas and his firm represents the clearest manifestations of this "art."

Rem Koolhaas is a remarkable architect, urban planner, artist, visionary, writer, lecturer, and architectural academic. He joins OMA alumna Zaha Hadid as one of few architects whose theoretical investigations, renderings, and writings have brought them fame and raised a few eyebrows even before they have built a recognized work of architecture. Consider his early masterpiece Delirious New York, an insightful but fascinating narrative on how the Manhattan gird shaped its revolutionary albeit gloriously chaotic architectural destiny. Despite its giddy and irreverent tone, the influential book has been an intrinsic part of the canon of works appropriated by architectural students everywhere (sometimes to the dismay of their more conservative instructors). One simply cannot ignore his other exegesis on architecture and the brave new future of urbanism, S, M, L, XL, which had earned him reviews in as diverse and unexpected forums as the New York Review of Books and a television appearance on Charlie Rose. Even the Entertainment Weekly called him the "bratty high-brow gadfly of contemporary architecture." No other architect today has achieved this much recognition from his writings alone. Perhaps this is due to his being that rarest of breeds: an architect who can actually write. As the ultimate philosopher among today's architects who never ceases to challenge the mainstream, he has captivated the imaginations of not just architects and students, but also the intellectual world and the public at large. In addition to being a source of inspiration to many students of design, Koolhaas has the unique ability among architects to convey his unconventional world view in an engaging manner that is at once coherent and persuasive as well as funny and irreverent.

His prominence in the world of modern intelligentsia notwithstanding, in the end, his built projects speak for themselves. He has been recognised by several official organisations: the Progressive Architecture Award, the Prix d'Architecture of Le Moniteur, the Best Building in Japan 1991, the Antonio Gaudi Prize, etc. As a fearless artist, he has shown us repeatedly that in architecture, there is far more possible that can be achieved than what many architects may think. In order to realise their artistic visions, credit him and his firm for their dedication to imagination and creativity, combined with application of new materials, the latest technologies, and innovative engineering and construction techniques. He was once quoted in Seattle's the Stranger, "I think my greatest quality is staging the creative process. I'm able to link, compose, and question certain subjects, and to generate an inventory of possibilities which can then be tested against the research until they break." It's hardly surprising that Pritzker laureate Frank Gehry called him "the most comprehensive thinker in the profession today."

Perhaps the most significant aspect about Rem Koolhaas is that in many professional publications his designs are deemed to be avant-garde and controversial in nature. In my opinion, this is the best form of compliment. In always trying to achieve "the art of the possible," he doesn't shy away from innovative, daring, futuristic, or challenging solutions. As a result, his projects constitute "a set of ridiculous approaches which produce very interesting work." Interesting to the extent that nobody seems to being able to label this architect as being a follower of some other recognised architect or to classify his work as belonging to a particular style or movement of architecture. According to writer Douglas Coupland in the article "Dutch Reformation" in the New York Times of September 11, 1994, "One can walk through the hundreds of thousands of feet in his Lille [Congrexpo / Euralille] (there is a subway station, a tram station, a mall, four office towers, auditoriums and a concert hall) and not find one single reference, intended or accidental, to any previously existing architect or period." His uniqueness is his strength.

Koolhaas once stated that if there is a method in the work of OMA, "It is a method of systematic idealization– a systematic overestimation of what exists, a bombardment of speculation that inverts even the most mediocre aspects with retroactive conceptual and ideological charge." Can anyone explain this method? Perhaps the best explanation lies in examining the long list of projects themselves. For a start, take a look at the Netherlands Dance Theater in The Hague (1987) with its distinctive waving roof. Or perhaps the waves rolling at the Nexus World Housing in Fukuoka, Japan (1991). Consider the urban "Villa Dall'Ava" in Paris, France (1991) with the strange rooftop pool and the integration of living spaces inside and outside. Look at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (1992) with its use of available industrial materials and its clever sections. Furthermore, the "Educatorium" of University of Utrecht (1995) represents a fine example of his attitude toward confounding use of space. The relatively recent but undeniably weird Swiss cheese block of "Maison a Bordeaux" features a layering of three levels of living space, connected with each other by staircases and by an open lift platform. These sectional strategies allow the disabled homeowner easy access to all levels. On a far larger scale, in Koolhaas's bold new scheme for the proposed Seattle Public Library, the building takes the form of floating stacks of books. These giant, discrete rectangular volumes appear to float skyward, tethered to the ground by thin membranes of latticework and structure. In most of these works as well as in many others in the litany of OMA projects, the sense of openness, the bold use of glazing, and the integration of inside and outside all seem to suggest perhaps that Rem Koolhaas may well be a worthy successor to Mies van der Rohe's heroic dedication to achieve ultimate perfection with the glass house.

Some have been severely critical of Koolhaas's perceived irreverence, but in the end, he actually cares deeply about the built environment and the people who use it. Stating as the primary reason for building Seattle's proposed new public library, he wrote, "The last decade has shown an accelerated erosion of the public domain, replaced by increasingly sophisticated and entertaining forms of the private." As a non-commercial institution, the new library would be a final refuge, a free public meeting place for everyone belonging to everyone. Maybe he is not as perverse and cynical as some hope him to be.

Whether you are critical of his works or not, it can not be denied that Rem Koolhaas has raised awareness of architectural debate in the public at large. Ultimately, this raised level of awareness can only benefit the society in the form of better built environments as well as elevate the prestige of and concern for the profession. His works are indeed the art of the possible. He deserves to be added to the league of Pritzker laureates. His award would be a recognition for truly unconventional thought and an affirmation for future possibilities of architecture and urbanism.

I hope the committee will seriously consider this nomination. Thank you.

Yours truly,


Rick Grol

Copyright © 2000 H.J. (Rick) Grol. All rights reserved.