Joslyn Art Museum Shortlisted for Prix Versailles 2025
On May 5th, the Prix Versailles officially launched its 11th edition with the announcement of the seven projects forming the World’s Most Beautiful Museums List 2025. From Asia to the Americas, by way of Europe and the Middle East, each one is the product of meticulous, long-term work based on a rigorous, artistic design that was developed at the initiative and in service of an authentic approach focused on heritage and scenery. Of those seven museums, three will also receive the further distinction of a World Title – Prix Versailles, Interior or Exterior – to be awarded in December. The architectural prizes discerned by the Prix Versailles aim to promote intelligent sustainability, in which culture serves and transcends the notion of the environment.
Our project in Omaha, Nebraska, The Joslyn Museum of Art, was shortlisted for this edition!
“The World’s Most Beautiful Museums List for 2025 provides an extraordinary and particularly remarkable survey of the latest museum constructions, representing both the exuberance of youthful creativity and the maturity of the skills that inspire these achievements and make them possible. By fostering their own special ambiance, tailored to each site’s specific mission, these places deliver singular experiences to their visitors, encouraging them to open their minds both outwards and inwards. Never before has the entire world exhibited such a clear need to recall how deeply rooted it is in free, united humanity.”
Jérôme Gouadain, Secretary General of the Prix Versailles
The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, embraces paradox. On the Central Plains of the Midwest, in the eastern part of the Great Plains, the museum was founded in 1931 using Sarah Joslyn’s donation to the city to fund free public access to the arts, with the intention of documenting 5,000 years of human creativity and the diversity of the world’s cultures.
The campus features three remarkable structures: the 1931 Joslyn Building, an Art Deco masterpiece created by the father-son team of John and Alan McDonald; the 1994 Walter & Suzanne Scott Pavilion, the first American commission for Norman Foster; and now the 2024 Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion, designed by Snøhetta.
The paradox stems from the fact that, in contrast to its immediate environment, the contemporary addition by the Norwegian architectural firm seems to defy the ages, just as the Art Deco pavilion made no allusions to Roman conquest. And the result is spectacular. The Joslyn now provides an overview of all the twists and turns of US history and all the hopes of humankind for the next 5,000 years.
We are so honored that our work has been shortlisted for such an important prize alongside 6 other outstanding buildings.
Read more about Joslyn Art Museum, here.