Obama presents Pritzker at White House

WASHINGTON, June 2 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Thursday presented the Prtizker Architecture Prize to Eduardo Souto de Moura in a White House ceremony.

The award, which was initiated in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, is presented each year by the Hyatt Foundation to honor "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture"

Thomas Pritzker, who with other family members runs The Pritzker Organization, introduced the president at the event, saying Obama had wanted at one time in his life to be an architect. The president got a laugh when he told the audience he "expected to be more creative than I turned out, so I had to go into politics instead."

Obama said architecture is "all about … creating buildings and spaces that inspire us, that help us do our jobs, that bring us together, and that become, at their best, works of art that we can move through and live in. And in the end, that's why architecture can be considered the most democratic of art forms."

"Eduardo Souto de Moura has designed homes, shopping centers, art galleries, schools and subway stations -- all in a style that seems as effortless as it is beautiful," the president said.