MADRID (AP).- Architect Rafael Moneo has been named the winner of Spain's Prince of Asturias arts award in 2011.

Moneo is one of Spain's most prestigious architects whose works include the Los Angeles Cathedral and the Atocha railway station in Madrid.

The Prince of Asturias Foundation said Moneo's "work enriched urban space with a serene and meticulously tidy architecture."

The prize was announced Wednesday as Moneo turned 75. He already won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1996.

Eight Asturias prizes are awarded each year covering the arts, human rights, sciences and sports.

They include a €50,000 ($65,000) cash award and a sculpture by Joan Miro. They are presented by Spain's crown prince each autumn in Oviedo.

José Rafael Moneo Vallés, 74, was born in Tudela, Spain. He obtained his architectural degree in 1961 from the School of Architecture in Madrid, then worked with Danish architect Jørn Utzon and studied at the Spanish Academy in Rome before opening his own practice in Madrid. Among his best-known works in Spain are the Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, the Kursaal Congress Center in San Sebastian, the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Palma de Mallorca and the Atocha Railway Station in Madrid.

His most prominent U.S. works include the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, the Audrey Jones Beck Building at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., and more recently, the Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering at Harvard University, the Chace Center at the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Northwest Corner Building at Columbia University.

Works currently under construction include the Princeton University Neuroscience and Psychology Building and the Center for Contemporary Art de la Universidad de Navarra.

Moneo is also a noted theorist, critic and teacher. His scholarly work includes numerous and widely published articles and lectures. He has taught architecture at various sites around the world, and from 1985 to 1990 served as chair of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is the first Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture.

In 1996 he became the first Spanish architect to be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, often referred to as the profession's highest honor. He is also the recipient of numerous additional awards, including the Gold Medal by the Spanish government, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Prince of Viana Prize (Spain), the SwedishSchock Price for the Visual Arts and the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal.

Moneo is an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects.


Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.