QUEEN ELIZABETH II KNIGHTS ARCHITECT DAVID ADJAYE

Architect David Adjaye, whose recent projects include the celebrated African American History and Culture Museum in Washington, DC, was awarded with a knighthood for his service to architecture, Natasha Kwok of Designboom reports. Prince William performed the investiture ceremony on Friday, May 12.

“[Adjaye] is one of the leading architects of his generation and a global cultural ambassador for the UK,” the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood at St. James’s Palace said in a statement. “His designs include the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo in the shell of a disused railway station and the Whitechapel Idea Store in London where he also pioneered a new approach to the provision of information services as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver and numerous private commissions.”

Born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents, Adjaye set up his first office in 1994. In 2000, he renamed his firm Adjaye Associates, which now has offices in London and New York. Among the projects Adjaye Associates is working on is a new major contemporary art museum in Riga, Latvia. The $33.8 million institution will be completed in 2021. Adjaye has also worked as a professor at the Royal College of Art and at the Architectural Association School in London. He is currently the John C. Portman Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard.

“I am truly honored and humbled to receive a knighthood by Her Majesty the Queen for my contribution to architecture,” Adjaye said. “I see this not as a personal celebration, but as a celebration of the vast potential, and responsibility, for architecture to effect positive social change.”