French architect Jean Nouvel is the 2008 laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, it was announced Sunday, the second Pritzker recipient to be chosen from France after Christian de Portzamparc, who received the trophy in 1994.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize is among the most esteemed architecture prizes in the world. Jean Nouvel, 62, was chosen by the Pritzker jury for his career, spanning more than 30 years, during which he has “pushed architecture’s discourse and praxis to new limits,” the jury's citation said, the New York Times reports.

“His inquisitive and agile mind propels him to take risks in each of his projects, which, regardless of varying degrees of success, have greatly expanded the vocabulary of contemporary architecture.”

A formal ceremony will be held on June 2 at the Library of Congress in Washington. Nouvel will receive a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion.

The Pritzker jurors, chosen by the Hyatt Foundation from among architects, critics, academics and others, praised Nouvel for his “persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation.”

Expressing his pleasure with the academic recognition, Nouvel told the Associated Press: “I think they understood very well that I fight for specific architecture against generic architecture. Every project is an adventure.”

Among the creations commended by the jury were the Arab World Institute in Paris, designed during former French President François Mitterrand’s period in office, the Guthrie Theater, in Minneapolis and the Agbar Tower in Barcelona.

Jean Nouvel was born on Aug. 12, 1945, in Fumel, Lot-et-Garonne. He attended École des Beaux-Arts of Bordeaux and École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Nouvel was an assistant to architects Claude Parent and Paul Virilio and he was a co-founder of the French architecture movement Mars 1976.

His other works include 40 Mercer Street Residences, in NYC; Musée du quai Branly, in Paris; and an expansion of Reina Sofía Museum, in Madrid.

His current projects are a high-rise condominium in Los Angeles with green gardens visible behind its glass walls and a tower alongside New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Former winners of the Pritzker prize include Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano and IM Pei. The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honor a living architect. It was created in the late 1970s.