REAL ESTATE

Sweet Revenge: Prince Charles once attacked one of James Stirling’s buildings as looking like a 1930s radio.

But the British architect, who designed the new science library at UC Irvine, can feel vindicated. Last month he won one of the world’s richest art prizes, the Praemium Imperiale Prize for architecture.

The prize, given by the Japanese, carries an award of $170,000. Stirling, 64, took the occasion to upbraid the heir to the British throne, a critic of modern architecture: “I don’t think he can distinguish between good and bad architecture.”

UCI, founded in the 1960s, has hired an impressive array of architects to design its buildings. The campus was laid out by the noted planner and architect William Pereira, who also designed many of its early buildings; Frank Gehry and Charles Moore worked on later buildings.

Working drawings for the new six-story science library--the campus’ second major library building--are just finished. Construction is scheduled to begin in October and be completed by spring, 1992.

The $32-million building, of tan glass and cement, will have a circular main wing with a courtyard inside and a rectangular wing on either side. A pedestrian mall will run through the middle of the main wing.