Pritzker family

The Pritzker family is one of the wealthiest families in the United States, being near the top of Forbes magazine’s “America’s Richest Families” list since the magazine began it in 1982.

The family is most famous for owning the Hyatt hotel chain, and the Marmon Group, conglomerate of manufacturing and industrial service companies which has since been sold to Berkshire Hathaway. Other holdings have included the Superior Bank of Chicago, the TransUnion credit bureau and the Royal Caribbean cruise line.

The Pritzker family and its members are of Jewish descent.

Members

Pritzker Architecture Prize

The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually "to honor a living architect or architects 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." Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation and is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes; it is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. The most recent winner, in 2016, is the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena.

The prize is said to be awarded "irrespective of nationality, race, creed, or ideology." The recipients receive US$100,000, a citation certificate, and since 1987, a bronze medallion. The designs on the medal are inspired by the work of architect Louis Sullivan, while the Latin inspired inscription on the reverse of the medallion—firmitas, utilitas, venustas (English: firmness, commodity and delight)—is from Ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. Before 1987, a limited edition Henry Moore sculpture accompanied the monetary prize.

Alejandro Aravena

Alejandro Aravena (born 1967) is an architect from Santiago, Chile. He is executive director of the firm Elemental S.A. He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2016. He is also the director and curator of the Architecture Section of the Venice Biennale 2016.

Education and career

Aravena graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1992 and established Alejandro Aravena Architects in 1994. Aravena was a visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design from 2000–05 and is the Elemental-Copec Professor at Universidad Católica de Chile. Aravena authored Los Hechos de la Arquitectura (ARQ, 1999), El Lugar de la Arquitectura (ARQ, 2002) and the monograph Elemental: Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual (Hatje-Cantz, 201). He was a member of the Pritzker Prize Jury from 2009 to 2015, and is an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

In 2006, he became the executive director of ELEMENTAL, a for profit company with social interest.

Pritzker School

A.N. Pritzker school is located in the heart of the Wicker Park neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois (2009 W Schiller St, Chicago, IL 60622.) Pritzker School serves grades K-8 with its neighborhood magnet-cluster school focused on fine and performing arts and a Regional Gifted Center. Pritzker also offers a Pre-K for all program. The school is part of the Chicago Public Schools, CPS, system. The students and its mascot are referred to as the Wildcats.

Pritzker earned the 2010 Spotlight Schools Award for Academic Achievement, for Exemplary Performance in Closing the Achievement Gap, Meeting High Standards, and Opening a World of Opportunities. Additionally, Pritzker won the Spotlight Schools Award in 2009.

Also in 2010, Pritzker was acknowledged by CPS as a Level 1 (Excellent Rating) in Overall School Performance.

Pritzker's Regional Gifted Center

Pritzker is one of the Regional Gifted Centers within the City of Chicago's Public School district. The Regional Gifted Centers provide accelerated pace instruction generally up to two years above grade level. The RGC curriculum focus is on critical thinking, logical reasoning and general problem solving skills. RGC admission selection is determined by the Chicago Public Schools Office of Academic Enhancement.

Medical school

A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians and surgeons. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, MBChB, BMBS), Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO). Many medical schools offer additional degrees, such as a Doctor of Philosophy, Master's degree, a physician assistant program, or other post-secondary education.

Medical schools can also employ medical researchers and operate hospitals. Around the world, criteria, structure, teaching methodology, and nature of medical programs offered at medical schools vary considerably. Medical schools are often highly competitive, using standardized entrance examinations, as well as grade point average and leadership roles, to narrow the selection criteria for candidates. In most countries, the study of medicine is completed as an undergraduate degree not requiring prerequisite undergraduate coursework. However, an increasing number of places are emerging for graduate entrants who have completed an undergraduate degree including some required courses. In the United States and Canada, almost all medical degrees are second entry degrees, and require several years of previous study at the university level.