To mark the award to Jean Nouvel of the Pritzker prize, here's a reminder of the French architect's plan for an extraordinary skyscraper in Midtown. By winning the Pritzker, the equivalent of a lifetime's achievement award in the profession, Nouvel has improved the chances of the proposed 75-story tower for the Museum of Modern Art, on 53rd Street. The architect's first great building, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, resembled a high-tech recreation of a Sultan's palace; this double spire looks like it jumped from the set for The Fifth Element, missing only the flying yellow cabs darting between the buildings.

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