Museum of Architecture and Design, together with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban studies, has announced that Miami-based architect and urban planner Chad Oppenheim has been selected as the 2023 Laureate of The American Prize for Architecture®, the prestigious award that is regarded internationally as the highest honor for architecture in the United States.
Oppenheim’s built works, spanning over two decades, are expansive in typology and geography, including works ranging from cultural and hospitality buildings to residences and urban master planning throughout Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America.
“Subtle, powerful, elegant, and deeply romantic” states Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, architecture critic and Museum President/CEO of The Chicago Athenaeum, “he is a prolific American architect who is radical in his restraint, demonstrating his reverence for history and culture, as well as time and space, while honoring the preexisting built and natural environments, as he reimagines a more beautiful and poetic world with modern, meaningful buildings that relate to their context and reinvigorates the landscape and places in which his designs exits.”
“His monumental, immutable architecture enhances the lives of its occupants, realizes a site’s full potential, and protects and celebrates the natural environment.”
“From the serene Jordanian desert to the lush Bahamas, he shapes buildings and places to achieve the optimal balance between creativity and pragmatism, function and experience, construction and aesthetics.”
“He treats his buildings and projects with sanctity as he unlocks the mystical and metaphysical essence of the power of architecture.”
“Oppenheim’s buildings engage and harness their surrounding land and seascapes and showcase the designer’s dedication to sustainable practices and materials.”
“He believes that buildings and their environment should be deeply symbiotic, where projects ‘belong’ to their site and form follows feeling. Guided by three philosophical pillars—spirit of place, silent monumentality, and the essential—he has spent decades creating landmark architecture that is highly sensitive and responsive to its context and climate.” Read more here