So why is the Pritzker Prize awarded to just one person?  In this piece from Slate online, Witold Rybczynski discusses the phenomenon behind the so-called “Nobel Prize” for architecture and how it differs from the hard sciences and literature awards in that a successful architecture project is a team effort and not solely the work of one single architectural mind.  It is a very interesting way to look at these awards and how they fit into this business of many different parts all working to one common goal.

Conde Nast Traveler’s April Issue has published the New 7 wonders of the architectural world.  One of the seven is here in Washington D.C.!  The Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum has been named one of the seven wonders because of it’s curved ceiling of glass and steel over the courtyard connecting the building to itself.  This is a worthwhile place in the District to visit, not only for history and art, but for the courtyard’s architecture.  The courtyard officially opened this past year and is open when the museum is.