Jean NouvelFrench architect Jean Nouvel, who is known for his design of Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, has been awarded his profession's highest honor, the Pritzker Prize, according to media reports Monday.The jury made special mention of Nouvel's 2006 Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, which created "a dialogue" with the waters of the Mississippi River and the historic mills.The massive, boxy dark-blue structure opened along the Mississippi River in 2006 was met with worldwide acclaim.In nearly four decades, 62-year-old Nouvel has designed more than 200 projects in his native France, around Europe, in Asia and the United States, fighting what he calls "generic architecture."The light system of the Agbar Tower, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel"All my life, I have fought against generic architecture and fought for specific architecture," said Nouvel, whose other buildings include the sleekly curved Dentsu Tower in Tokyo and the gherkin-shaped Torre Agbar in Barcelona.The layering of light and transparency and opacity are recurring themes in Nouvel's work, most recently in his Tour Verre, a 75-story tower to be built in New York City, and in the Suncal Tower, a high-rise planned for Los Angeles."When you travel around the world, in the big cities, you see exactly the same buildings," Nouvel said. "I think it is important in this globalization to consider that architecture is a form of resistance to this uniformization of the world."The Pritzker Prize was created by the Chicago-based Pritzker family, owners of the Hyatt hotel chain.Nouvel's prize, which includes a 100,000-U.S.dollar grant, will be presented June 2 in a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington.