Default | NEWS

4/23/2009

Architecture's Lerup wins Rome Prize to study Pantheon

BY KEN FOUNTAIN
Special to the Rice News

Architecture Dean Lars Lerup will be spending nearly a year studying the Pantheon as a recipient of the 113th annual Rome Prize Competition awarded by the American Academy in Rome.

	LARS LERUP

The academy's trustees announced the 29 winners of the prize April 16. It is awarded annually through an open competition juried by leading artists and scholars in the various fellowship fields. Lerup is one of two architects (with Keil Moe of Northeastern University) to be named this year. Other recipients hail from disciplines as varied as ancient studies, historic preservation and conservation, literature and musical composition.

"I'm going to sit in front of the Pantheon, drink coffee during the day and wine at night and think," said Lerup, whose long career has focused on the idea of "monumentalism" in architecture and the emergence of metropolises in the modern world. The final result of that study, he said, will likely be a book with text and photographs, a museum exhibit or catalog.

Lerup said while he has previously developed some ideas about the Pantheon (a temple in Rome dedicated to all the ancient Roman gods), he explained to the jury in his proposal that he would be taking an entirely fresh look at the structure and its place in architectural history.

As part of the fellowship, Lerup will receive a stipend, a study or studio, and room and board at a small villa at the academy. Lerup, a native Swede who has lived in northern and southern Italy, said this will be his first extensive visit to Rome. But, he said, he has many friends there, including several Rice School of Architecture alumni.

Lerup said he is particularly looking forward to interacting with his fellow award recipients, who will meet regularly and dine together. "It's a very unique situation," he said. "It's a mecca of interdisciplinarity, a kind of cooperative think tank.".

Lerup's stay in Rome will coincide with his already-planned sabbatical from Rice after his 16 years as dean of the School of Architecture and the William Ward Watkin Professor of Architecture. Afterward, he will return as a tenured professor and co-director (with Joe Powell) of the Rice Building Institute.

The fellowship begins in September.