Eighty-five year old Frank Gehry has been named the laureate of the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts for his design for the Guggenheim Bilbao. He beat out thirty-six other candidates to become the sixth architect to win this illustrious honor. Gehry’s titanium design for the Guggenheim opened in 1997 and helped to breath new life into the industrial city. According to the jury, “His buildings are characterized by a virtuoso play of complex shapes, the use of unusual materials, such as titanium, and their technological innovation, which has also had an impact on other arts. An example of this open, playful and organic style of architecture is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which, in addition to its architectural and aesthetic excellence, has had an enormous economic, social and urban impact on its surroundings as a whole.”