Richard Morris Hunt Prize Overview

Since 1990, the Richard Morris Hunt Prize, co-sponsored by the American Architectural Foundation and the French Heritage Society, offers mid-career American and French design professionals an intensive six-month exchange experience that showcases the latest scholarship and practice around historic preservation and architectural heritage.

The Hunt Prize is named for Richard Morris Hunt, the first American architect to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Hunt is one of the most renowned 19th-century American architects and helped to formalize architecture as a profession in the U.S. and promote urbanism. The Hunt Fellowship Prize alternates each year between a French and American architect and carries a stipend of $20,000.

The American Architectural Foundation and French Heritage Society conceived the Hunt Prize as a means to introduce experienced preservation architects in France and the United States to preservation practice and technique in each other’s countries. Awarded in alternate years to an American and to a French fellow, the program includes extensive travel and interaction with local preservation professionals in the host country. It affords design professionals the opportunity to broaden their outlooks on architectural heritage. Americans see a variety of current projects and are introduced to the state institutions that govern French historic monuments and landscapes. French recipients are introduced to federal, state and local preservation organizations, professionals in public and private practices and visit significant historic sites and projects applicable to their proposed study in the United States.

Since 2011, the Richard Morris Hunt Prize Jury gives an additional opportunity through the Hunt Scholarship Prize to an architect with the characteristics outlined above to spend five weeks in France or America with the assistance of the Managing Teams.

For more information, visit www.rmhprize.org. 

27 Fellows from France and the U.S. constitute an active professional network for the program:

2017 Beth A. Jacob, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C

2016 Lucas Monsaingeon

2014 Laurent Duport

2013 Maya Foty, AIA, LEED AP

2012 Elsa Ricaud, DSA

2011 Robert J. Hotes, AIA, LEED AP

2010 Vanessa Fernandez

2009 Tina Roach, AIA, LEED AP

2008 Diego Rodriguez, DSA

2007 Wendy Hillis, AIA

2006 Christophe Loustaü, DSA

2005 Mary Brush, FAIA

2004 Pascal Filâtre, DSA

2003 Kyle R. Brooks, AIA

2002 Sabina Fabris, DSA

2001 Raymond Plumey, FAIA

2000 Stéphanie Zugmeyer, DSA

1999 Elizabeth Newman, AIA

1998 Stéphanie Celle-Riccio, DSA

1997 Yves Patrick Deflandre, AIA

1996 Jérôme Francou, DSA

1995 Linda Stevenson, AIA, LEED AP

1994 Ruth Todd, FAIA, AICP, LEED AP

1993 Jean-Christophe Simon, DSA, CESHCMA

1992 Bonita J. Mueller, RA, DESCHMA, PMP

1991 Pierre-Antoine Gatier, DSA, Hon. FAIA

1990 John Robbins, AIA

Four Scholars from France and the U.S. add to the active professional network for the program:

2017 Constance C. Lai, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C

2016 Florence Declaveillère

2014 Axelle Macardier

2012 Isabelle Michard