Rem Koolhaas

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas was born November 17, 1944 and heads one of the world’s more notable firms, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

Koolhaas won the Pritzker Prize in 2000 and the Jury stated, “His architecture is an architecture of essence; ideas given built form. He is an architect obviously comfortable with the future and in close communication with its fast pace and changing configurations. One senses in his projects the intensity of thought that forms the armature resulting in a house, a convention center, a campus plan, or a book. He has firmly established himself in the pantheon of significant architects of the last century and the dawning of this one. For just over twenty years of accomplishing his objectives – defining new types of relationships, both theoretical and practical, between architecture and the cultural situation, and for his contributions to the built environment, as well as for his ideas, he is awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize.”

A recent notable structure is the China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing.  The building opened in June 2008, just ahead of the Olympic Games.

China Central Television Headquarters