Elsewhere, while Starck and Foster are charting the seven seas, Frank Gehry is in his rumpus room in the basement, trying to figure out how to clear off some space in his trophy case, as it's just been announced that the starchitect will be receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at this year's Venice Biennial in September. Hopefully those extra couple of months will give him enough time to find a space for the new award. We recommend maybe just moving the Pritzker into the garage, because, really Frank, you never use the dang thing anymore. Here's a bit:

With this award, the desire is to stress -- in line with the spirit of the 11th Architecture Biennale -- how much Gehry's work is the significant result of years of experimentation. "Frank Gehry has transformed modern architecture"; writes Aaron Betsky in his motivation. "He has liberated it from the confines of the 'box' and the constraints of common building practices. As experimental as the art practices that have been his inspiration, Frank Gehry's architecture is the very modern model for an architecture beyond building."

The Board has also underlined the important presence Gehry will have in Venice with his Venice Gateway, the water gate linking the city to the airport.

A ha! There's the line. Very clever, you Venetians -- give him the award so he'll one day finish the big project you've hired him for (and maybe it'll also persuade him to stay on budget, too).