In 1999, Diller Scofidio + Renfro were the first architecture firm to be awarded a
MacArthur Fellowship, with the MacArthur Foundation stating that the firm has "created an alternative form of architectural practice that unites design, performance, and electronic media with cultural and architectural theory and criticism. Their work explores how space functions in our culture and illustrates that architecture, when understood as the physical manifestation of social relationships, is everywhere, not just in buildings." Since then, Diller Scofidio + Renfro have been inducted into the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and made fellows of the
Royal Institute of British Architects. They have been awarded the
National Design Award; the Brunner Prize from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters; an
Obie for off-Broadway theater production; the Centennial Medal of Honor from the
American Academy in Rome; and various awards of the
American Institute of Architects, including the AIA President's Award, the AIA Medal of Honor, the AIA Louis I. Kahn Award, and AIA Design Awards for numerous projects. In 2009, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio were named among the
Time 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2010,
Fast Company named Diller Scofidio + Renfro the most innovative design practice in the profession and among the 50 most innovative companies in the world. More recent awards won by the firm have included the
Lawrence Israel Prize (2012) and the
Royal Academy of Arts' Architecture Prize (2019). The Rubenstein Forum in Chicago, which Diller Scofidio + Renfro completed in 2020, won the
Tall Building Award in 2022. For her work with the studio, Elizabeth Diller has been elected into the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, selected as an
Aspen Institute Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence, honored with the
Barnard Medal of Distinction, and awarded the
Jane Drew Prize (2019). In 2022, she was one of three architects awarded the
Wolf Prize in Arts. Multiple drawings, objects, and ephemera from the firm's early years are held in the collections of the
Museum of Modern Art and the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 2003, the
Whitney Museum of American Art held an early-career retrospective of the studio's work,
Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio, recognizing and investigating the firm's unorthodox practice. The second major exhibition involving Diller Scofidio + Renfro's work,
Restless Architecture (which was also curated by the studio), opened at
MAXXI in 2024. == Selected projects ==