Noted Atlanta architect and developer John Portman has received another accolade to add to his increasingly crowded trophy case.
Less than a week since the “John Portman: Art and Architecture” exhibit opened at the High Museum of Art to honor his life and work, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat awarded Mr. Portman, 84, with its 2009 Lynn S. Beedle lifetime achievement award on Oct. 22 in Chicago.
The award recognizes Mr. Portman’s ability to see beyond singular buildings into the urban context within which they sit.
“His careful urban planning and ability to weave art, nature and the pedestrian experience together in his designs has led to the successful revitalization of many neighborhoods,” the council said in a press release.
Mr. Portman has been credited with transforming Atlanta’s skyline and carrying on the same work all over the world. His companies have seen vast success in Asia, especially China, where he pioneered mixed-use developments and became one of the first major foreign real estate investors in a country that had just opened to the outside world.
Most recently he created the design and master plan for Songdo Landmark City, a community in the South Korean city of Incheon. The development will be anchored by the Incheon 151 Tower, a 2,200-foot building that gets its name from the number of stories it will house.
The High exhibit and the tall buildings council award come almost exactly a month after Mr. Portman’s acceptance of a similar lifetime achievement award at the World Trade Center Atlanta‘s annual Governor’s International Awards ceremony.
See GlobalAtlanta‘s on-the-ground coverage of the Incheon tower here.
