British architect recognised for work on traditional civic buildings and war memorials
Architect Liam O’Connor has been named the 2025 winner of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame.
The prize, established in 2003, is awarded annually to an architect whose work is considered to embody classical and traditional principles in contemporary practice.
O’Connor is known for his work on national memorials in the UK and abroad. His best-known projects include the RAF Bomber Command Memorial at Hyde Park Corner, the British Normandy Memorial in France, and the Armed Forces Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
The British Normandy Memorial, inaugurated on 6 June 2021, overlooks Gold Beach, one of the five D-Day landing sites of the Second World War. The project commemorates 22,442 British service personnel who lost their lives during the campaign to liberate Europe. The site includes 160 limestone Doric columns inscribed with the names of the fallen, with the wider masterplan set across 60 acres. The masterplan envisages future planned structures to be built using 3,500 tonnes of Burgundy limestone and hundreds of sustainably felled oak trees.
The RAF Bomber Command Memorial incorporates riveted metal from downed aircraft into the roof of its Doric pavilion, an approach the jury citation states is intended to memorialise the aircraft central to the history of the pilots it commemorates. The memorial, unveiled in 2012, has been the subject of controversy due to the role of Bomber Command in the strategic bombing campaigns of the Second World War, which resulted in significant civilian casualties in German cities.
The ethical debates surrounding these operations contributed to delays in establishing a dedicated memorial, with public and governmental reluctance to fund the project. Since its inauguration, the memorial has been vandalised on several occasions, reflecting the continuing sensitivities around Bomber Command’s legacy. Some have also noted the extensive destruction of European architecture during the war as a result of these bombing campaigns.
O’Connor was also the architect of the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill, which commemorate the service of Commonwealth soldiers, and the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial at the Ministry of Defence building in London.
Alongside his work on public memorials, O’Connor has designed private and commercial buildings, often in classical styles. He worked on the Orangery New Building at Kensington Palace, a Portland stone and brick extension to the Grade I-listed Orangery attributed to Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor. He was also involved in the restoration and extension of the Magazine Building in Hyde Park Gardens, which was converted into an exhibition facility for the Serpentine Gallery in collaboration with Zaha Hadid Architects.
His residential projects include a recently completed house in Belgravia, reportedly one of the largest new houses built on the Grosvenor Estate in a century.
O’Connor established his practice, Liam O’Connor Architects and Planning Consultants, in 1989. His early work included competition-winning schemes for urban masterplans in Brussels and Warsaw. Between 1995 and 1997, he served as a special adviser for architecture and urban design to the then Secretary of State for the Environment, John Gummer.
The Richard H. Driehaus Prize has been awarded annually since 2003. Past winners include Léon Krier (2003), Demetri Porphyrios (2004), Robert A.M. Stern (2011) and Michael Graves (2012).
Quinlan Terry (2005) and Robert Adam (2017) are among the British architects to have received the prize, both known for their focus on contemporary classicism.
More recent recipients include Ben Pentreath (2023) and Peter Pennoyer (2024), both known for their work in classical and vernacular architecture. Rob Krier (2022) was cited for his work on urban theory and traditional urbanism, while Sebastian Treese (2021) has focused on classical and sustainable residential design in Germany.
Other winners include Ong-ard Satrabhandhu (2020), known for his work in Thai traditional architecture, and Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil (2009), whose practice has focused on Islamic architecture and the revival of traditional building techniques in the Arab world.
The Driehaus Prize will be formally presented at a ceremony in Chicago later this year.
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