Architect & Classicist John Simpson Wins 2026 Driehaus Prize

British architect and urban planner John Simpson was recently named the 2026 recipient of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in classical and traditional architecture. He was awarded the prize in a ceremony in Chicago on March 21.

Presented by the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, the Driehaus Prize honors a living architect anywhere in the world whose work demonstrates the cultural and civic value of classical design.

Simpson, who founded John Simpson Architects in 1980, has spent much of his career arguing that tradition and innovation are not opposites. His projects range from major urban masterplans to carefully detailed civic and institutional buildings, all shaped by a belief in architecture’s responsibility to the public realm. 

That philosophy helped establish him as a leading voice in the New Classicism movement, especially in Britain, where he is widely known for challenging the dominance of modernist planning and design.

In 2021, Traditional Building awarded John Simpson Architects a Palladio Award for his work on the University of Notre Dame’s new Walsh Family Hall of Architecture. The award went to both John Simpson Architects as the project’s design architect and Chicago-based Stantec Architecture as the project’s executive architect.

Among Simpson’s best-known works are the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, the West Range of Gonville Court at Cambridge’s Gonville & Caius College, and the Brownsword Market Hall at Poundbury, a landmark development associated with traditional urban planning principles. His practice has also taken on masterplanning and interior design, treating cities, buildings, and furnishings as connected parts of one civic environment.

His national profile rose sharply with the 1990 Paternoster Square competition near St. Paul’s Cathedral, where he proposed a more context-sensitive, traditionally rooted response to the site. Although the project did not move forward in his favor, the proposal became an important reference point in debates over classical architecture. Simpson’s career has helped make classicism feel contemporary, rather than nostalgic.

“Our ancestors built wonderful and enduring cities through a shared tradition,” Simpson said in a statement to Notre Dame. “When I began my career, there were only a few that held to that path. It is such a joy to see how this has changed over the years with a rising generation of architects committed to restoring the continuity that binds us to our classical roots and determined to create a beautiful and humane world for future generations to enjoy.”

Simpson was awarded the Driehaus Prize in a ceremony that took place on March 21 at the Murphy Auditorium in Chicago. In conjunction with the Driehaus Prize, the 2026 Henry Hope Reed Award was given to French architect Philippe Villeneuve, who led the restoration of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris after the 2018 fire.