Moneo, Rafael (José Rafael Moneo), 1937–, Spanish architect, b. Tudela, Navarre. He received undergraduate (1961) and doctoral (1965) degrees from the Madrid School of Architecture, worked (1960–61) with Danish architect Jørn Utzon, and studied (1963–65) at the Spanish Academy in Rome before opening (1965) his own practice in Madrid. Many of his buildings are executed in masonry, and his unique, subtle, and site-specific structures are marked by a kind of timeless modernity that acknowledges and reinterprets historical forms in precise contemporary geometrics. The majority of his works are in Spain, e.g., the Diestre factory, Zaragoza (1967), his first commission; the National Museum of Roman Art, Mérida (1986); the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation, Palma, Majorca (1992); Kursaal, a multibuilding auditorium and convention center, San Sebastián (1999); and the Prado Museum extension, Madrid (2007). Among his other works are the Davis Art Museum, Wellesley College (1993); the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art and Architecture (1998); the massively angular Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, Los Angeles (2002); and Columbia's steel and aluminum gridded Northwest Corner building, New York City (2011). Moneo, who founded (1968) Arquitectura Bis magazine, is also a noted theorist, critic, and teacher. He has taught in Spain and at such American institutions as Princeton and Harvard, where he was (1985–90) head of the graduate architecture department and remains a professor. Among his many awards is the 1996 Pritzker Prize.
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