Joseph Rykwert, architectural critic, historian, and writer won the 2014 RIBA Royal Gold Medal, a distinction that has typically been awarded to architects. He is a leading authority on the history of art and architecture and has had a major impact on designers and architects since the 1960s. He will be presented the award at a black tie dinner at RIBA’s London headquarters.

“What makes the gift doubly precious is that it does not come from my fellow-scriveners, but from architects and builders—and suggests that what I have written has engaged their attention and been of use, even though I have never sought to be impartial but have taken sides, sometimes combatively,” Rykwert told the Guardian. “So I feel both elated and enormously grateful.”

Previous winners include Le Corbusier (1953), Frank Gehry (2000), Toyo Ito (2006), Herzog & de Meuron (2007), Alvaro Siza (2009), I. M. Pei (2010), David Chipperfield (2011), and Peter Zumthor (2013)