"Getting Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi to come from Philadelphia as jury for the first Premio Década was undoubtedly an achievement made easier by the prominent role we gave her from the outset. Without a doubt, the Prize could not have started better.

◻️ On the first morning, I went to pick up the couple at the airport and took them to the Majestic Hotel. After a short rest, we began the visits. I accompanied them and provided information about the work, but I did not express any opinions or intervene at all in their evaluation. That year, the favorite project was, without question, the Palau Sant Jordi, the pavilion by Arata Isozaki, built in 1990 in anticipation of the 1992 Olympic Games. When the taxi that was taking us to all the visits dropped us off in front of the lateral façade of the Sant Jordi, I heard Robert whisper:

- It’s the most fascist facade I’ve seen in years. (And at that moment, I feared it wasn’t going to win the Prize.)"

Oscar Tusquets Blanca

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Jury report for the Premio Década 2000 (Works completed in 1990).

"We have chosen the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, by Roser Amadó and Lluís Doménech, as the winner of Premio Década.

▪️ In parallel, we have suggested a special award for the Ayuntamiento and for the architects and landscape architects of its plazas and ramblas.

▪️ The first choice for this new award will set a precedent for the future, therefore we feel fortunate that projects of highest quality have been submitted. Our chosen projects confront important tasks faced by our profession in the last decade and represent grateful directions taken by the city of Barcelona in that time. They cover urbanism, architecture, landscape architecture and historic preservation, and the work of both the private sector and the public sector in the city.

▪️ The Tapiès architectural project can represent a valid and vital juxtaposition of the old and the new -of the building of the original Antoni Tapiès organization and of the current Antoni Tapiès Foundation- where the aesthetic of the old is graciously respected and where the architectural programmatic and technical qualities of the new are positively celebrated in a dynamic city like Barcelona which is both old and new.

▪️ Long live to the layers of elements like glass panels, steel details, advanced lighting and mechanical systems, and abstract roof sculpture upon a distinguished masonry Art-Nouveau composition which create harmony via analogy and contrast!

▪️ The Ayuntamiento is to be congratulated for bringing parks to local neighbourhoods where they are needed, and for introducing high levels of design in these localities. We congratulate this creative vision of public administration in setting out the principles and guidelines that lie behind the individual architects interpretations of parks and ramblas.

▪️ Our chosen project and our special awards address a range of conditions in Barcelona –from its ramblas to its modernist heritage- that contribute to the city’s uniqueness. They have in common that they are nurturing: they draw their solutions and their special qualities from what lies within them, from their problem and its context, physical and cultural."

Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi.

Barcelona, 20 June 2000

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{Photographs on the awards ceremony by Rafael Vargas}