Pritzker Countdown

According to the Pritzker Prize web page, the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate will be announced tomorrow morning. Discussion is a-brewing over the potential winner, with the following favorites:

Santiago Calatrava
Thom Mayne (Morphosis)
Peter Eisenman
Daniel Libeskind
Toyo Ito
Jean Nouvel
Richard Rogers
Kazuyo Sejima (SANAA)

Looking at the past winners (below), the prize tends to single out individuals (omitting Robert Venturi's wife and partner and only once giving the prize to two individuals, in 2001) that are male (again, omitting Robert Venturi's wife and partner and giving the first prize to a woman last year). Architects outside the U.S. have won the last thirteen prizes, pointing towards an American architect to be named and making Mayne the apparent favorite. But the Pritzker Prizes tend to be a bit unpredictable - though last year's choice had a "p.c." smell to it - so it's anybody's guess who will win.

Past winners:

1979 - Philip Johnson of the United States
1980 - Luis Barrag�n of Mexico
1981 - James Stirling of Great Britain
1982 - Kevin Roche of the United States
1983 - Ieoh Ming Pei of the United States
1984 - Richard Meier of the United States
1985 - Hans Hollein of Austria
1986 - Gottfried Boehm of Germany
1987 - Kenzo Tange of Japan
1988 - Gordon Bunshaft of the United States / Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil
1989 - Frank O. Gehry of the United States
1990 - Aldo Rossi of Italy
1991 - Robert Venturi of the United States
1992 - Alvaro Siza of Portugal
1993 - Fumihiko Maki of Japan
1994 - Christian de Portzamparc of France
1995 - Tadao Ando of Japan
1996 - Rafael Moneo of Spain
1997 - Sverre Fehn of Norway
1998 - Renzo Piano of Italy
1999 - Sir Norman Foster of the United Kingdom
2000 - Rem Koolhaas of The Netherlands
2001 - Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Switzerland
2002 - Glenn Murcutt of Australia
2003 - J�rn Utzon of Denmark
2004 - Zaha Hadid of the United Kingdom

But there are some glaring omissions from both the past winners list and the "betting list", what I guess would be my favorites (in alphabetical order):

Wiel Arets
Mario Botta
Nicholas Grimshaw
Steven Holl
Enric Miralles (posthumously)
Antoine Predock
Tod Williams + Billie Tsien
Peter Zumthor

Whatever tomorrow's anticipated announcement, there definitely isn't a shortage of worthy contenders.