The gold medal is the top award presented annually by the
American Institute of Architects (AIA) to a professional whose work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Since the gold medal was established in 1947, the AIA has honoured the work of important architects from all over the world with the award, from such historic masters of the Modernist movement as
Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier to such well-known and popular contemporary architects as Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano, Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi, and Richard Rogers, to mention only a few.