John Murphy Auditorium setting for Driehaus Prize (1)

The biggest award in the traditional architecture world was presented yesterday afternooon, right here in Chicago at 50 E Erie in the Gold Coast. I was fortunate enough to attend the presentation, and speak to Patron, Richard Driehaus; the legendary Thomas Gordon Smith and fine practicing architect Bill Haier in the short time that I was at the awards.

Jaquelin T. Robertson was awarded Driehaus Prize and Edward Perry Bass the Harry Hope Reid Award. Congrat and I will post a follow up on the awards later but worth the trip alone

From the Land of Sky Blue Waters

In an interview with The Catholic Spirit, one of the nation's top Ecclesioligists, Prof. Duncan Stroik tells it like it is:

"For a Catholic, and for a Catholic building, beauty is essential, because first of all, God’s middle name is Beauty. And he, being in his creation, created great works of beauty that we are able to be stewards of. So, in our own way, we’re asked to imitate the creator in also creating beauty. So that’s the most important reason that we should build beautiful buildings — that it’s for God, it’s for his glory and it’s an imitation of him."

The above photo shows Stroik's (soon to be declared) masterpiece, the Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, in one of my favorite towns, LaCrosse, Wisconsin.