Lord Foster will be presented with the first BIA (Bilbao Bizkaia Architecture) Award for his contribution to Bilbao’s urban regeneration at an event in the Guggenheim Museum this evening. The biennial award recognises individuals who have contributed to the development of Bizkaia’s society through architecture and urban regeneration. The BIA is supported by Bilbao City Council and was set up by the Bizkaia Delegation of the Basque-Navarre Institute of Architects (COAVN) and its newly formed organization, Bilbao Bizkaia Architecture (BIA).

Lord Foster:

“The experience of the Bilbao metro project was very rewarding – in all kinds of ways. The regeneration of the city is the most tangible expression of the optimism of the people of Bilbao. The enlightened approach to investing in the city’s future made it a great privilege for me to be involved in the project. The very fact that an international competition was held to find an architect for the metro system is proof of the city’s scale of vision and the insistence on world-class quality, which characterises all of its civic projects of recent decades. I am very proud that the ‘Fosteritos’ have since become such a much-loved symbol of Bilbao, and I am honoured to receive this inaugural BIA Award.”

BIA website: http://biaforum.org/en/bia-award/

Project: Bilbao Metro

> via Foster+Partners