Marc Breitman and Nada Breitman-Jakov

Marc Breitman and Nada Breitman-Jakov, Paris-based architects known for improving cities through quality architecture and urbanism, have been named the recipients of the 2018 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame. They will be awarded the $200,000 prize during a ceremony on March 24 (Saturday) in Chicago.

“In contrast to current conventions of flawed experimentation in public housing, the Breitmans’ work stands out for its beauty and dignity,” said Michael Lykoudis, Driehaus Prize jury chair and Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture. “The public-private partnerships in which the Breitmans have engaged show the power of public officials to transform cities by carefully selecting architects and urban planners who are sensitive to the needs of citizens who experience the built environment on a daily basis.”

The jury citation states, “Unlike so many recent urban interventions, the work of the Breitmans takes its place in and inspiration from historical cities, breathing new life into beloved and time-tested architectural and urban patterns. Their developments contribute momentously to the enterprise of creating and preserving attractive and thriving urban communities that are sustainable, accessible, and that elevate the cultural life of their denizens.”

A native of Belgium, Nada Breitman-Jakov attended the L'École de la Cambre in Brussels, receiving degrees in both architecture and urban planning. Marc Breitman was born in Paris and received an architecture degree from the École des Beaux-Arts. Together, the two formed Breitman and Breitman, an architecture and urban planning studio, in 1989. Their projects range from residences, schools, hotels and commercial blocks to entire neighborhoods.

The Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame was established in 2003 to honor lifetime contributions to traditional, classical and sustainable architecture and urbanism in the modern world. The prize is awarded annually to a living architect whose work has had positive cultural, environmental and artistic impact in keeping with the highest ideals of classical architecture in contemporary society.

This year’s Driehaus Prize and Reed Award laureates were selected by a jury composed of Adele Chatfield-Taylor, president emerita of the American Academy in Rome; Robert Davis, developer and founder of Seaside, Florida; Paul Goldberger, contributing editor at Vanity Fair; Léon Krier, architect and urban planner; Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, founding principal of DPZ; Demetri Porphyrios, principal of Porphyrios Associates; and Witold Rybczynski, Meyerson Professor Emeritus of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.