Praise the Partner(s)

Below is an essay published in Architecture d’Aujourd’hui No. 395, on the topic of the current petiton for the Pritzker Prize committee to recognize the work of Denise Scott Brown, and the larger issues this raises for the practice of architecture and the giving or prizes.

So let’s salute Denise Scott Brown because she deserves it, and because she may indeed be, as Martin Filler put it in the New York Review of Books in 2010, “The World’s Foremost Female Architect.” But let’s not forget the second part of the quote. What needs to shift in architecture is more than making a place for women — it’s making a place for partners. For acknowledging strengths and weaknesses and pretending neither that one guru does it all, not that we can have it all.

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By Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and author, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism, awarded for her work as a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab. She is currently the architecture critic for Curbed and has written extensively for Design Observer, Architect, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. Lange holds a PhD in 20th-century architecture history from New York University. Her writing often explores the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and design, with a focus on how the built environment shapes everyday life. She is also a recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary from AIGA, an honor she shares with Design Observer’s Editor-in-Chief, Ellen McGirt.