Richard Rogers, an Italian-born Englishman who wields political clout as a liberal member of Britain's House of Lords and the unpaid chief of London's Architecture and Urbanism Unit, was named the winner of this year's prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize on Wednesday.

Rogers' signature buildings over the past 30 years include heralded temples to art (Paris' Pompidou Center museum, co-designed with Renzo Piano), commerce (the Lloyd's of London insurance tower), entertainment (the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, England) and transportation (a new terminal at Madrid Barajas International Airport in Spain). The air terminal won Rogers, at 73, the 2006 Sterling Prize for the best building by a British architect.

The Pompidou Center, disparaged by many critics when it opened in 1977, went on to be regarded as one of the most influential buildings of the late 20th century for its "inside-out" design, which placed mechanical viscera such as pipes and electrical conduits in full, brightly color-coded view. It touched off a continuing trend of architecturally distinctive "destination" buildings for arts and culture.

The $100,000 Pritzker prize has been awarded since 1979 by the Chicago-based Hyatt Foundation — established by the Pritzker family, whose business is the Hyatt hotel chain — and goes to a living architect for career achievement. Rogers is to receive his bronze medallion June 4 at a ceremony in London.

After being long shut out in the United States, except for a 1982 laboratory and office complex in Princeton, N.J., Rogers has landed three large projects over the past few years in New York, including a skyscraper that's part of the rebirth of the World Trade Center site and the $1.7 billion renovation and expansion of the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

The Pritzker jury's citation noted three of Rogers' buildings: the Pompidou Center; the Lloyd's of London building (1986), whose hallmarks include transparent external elevators; and the Madrid airport's Terminal 4, which opened in 2006.

"It's wonderful to get prizes, but one doesn't worry too much," Rogers said via telephone from London.

Martha Thorne, a juror and executive director of the Pritzker prize, said the jury was impressed that he was among the prominent architects, such as Norman Foster and 1989 Pritzker winner Frank Gehry, who have kept a creative edge beyond age 70.

"That was a consideration, because he is so current, and because he is still producing incredible buildings," Thorne said.

For Rogers, the Pritzker could create a bigger platform for his ideas about how to make cities more livable.