The notion of granting celebrity status to architects is not new, but it is contained within the general trend, from the Renaissance onwards, status was granted to artists. Until the modern era, artists in Western civilization generally worked under a patron, usually the Church or state rulers, and their reputation could be commodified, so that their services could be purchased by different patrons.

One of the first records of celebrity status is the artist and architect Giorgio Vasari's monograph Le vite de 'più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori (in Spanish, Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects), first published in 1550, recording the Italian Renaissance at the time of its flowering. Vasari, himself under the patronage of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, even favored the architects of the city where he resided, Florence, attributing innovation to them, barely mentioning other cities or places further away. The importance of Vasari's book lay in the ability to consolidate reputation and status without people having to see the works described.[11] Thus, the development of media has been equally of central importance to architectural celebrity as to other walks of life.

While the status arising from the patronage of Church and State continued with the rise of the Enlightenment and capitalism (for example, the architect Christopher Wren's position in the patronage of the British Crown, the City of London, the Church of England and the University of Oxford during the century), there was an expansion in the artistic and architectural services available, each competing for commissions with the growth of industry and the middle classes. However, architects remained essentially servants of their clients "Customer (economics)"): while Romanticism and modernism "Modernism (philosophical and cultural movement)") in the other arts encouraged individualism, progress in architecture was mainly oriented towards improvements in building performance (comfort standards), engineering and the development of new building typologies (e.g. factories, train stations and later airports) and public benevolence (the problems of urbanization, public housing, overcrowding, etc.), but allowing some architects to concern themselves with architecture as an autonomous art (as happened with Art Nouveau "Modernism (art)") and Art Deco).[12] Modern architecture, particularly the Bauhaus school, generated theory and school on how architecture, design and industrial production should focus on social development.

Such publicity also reached the popular press: in the post-war era, Time magazine occasionally featured architects on its cover, for example, in addition to Le Corbusier, Eero Saarinen, Frank Lloyd Wright and also Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In more recent times, Time magazine has also featured Philip Johnson, Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid.

Eero Saarinen is a particularly interesting case because he specialized in building headquarters for prestigious American companies. Companies, such as General Motors, CBS and IBM, and these companies used architecture to promote their corporate images: for example, during the 1950s, General Motors often photographed its new car models in front of its headquarters in Michigan.[16]​.

Corporations have continued to understand the value of hiring starchitects to design their key buildings. For example, the manufacturing company Vitra is well known for the works of notable architects that make up its facilities in Weil am Rhein, Germany; including Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, ​​SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron, Álvaro Siza, Frank Gehry, among others; as did the Prada fashion house "Prada (fashion house)") for commissioning Rem Koolhaas to design its flagship stores in New York and Los Angeles. However, throughout history, the greatest prestige has come with the design of public buildings: opera houses, libraries, town halls and especially museums, often called the "new cathedrals" of our time.[17]​.

Objectivity in the status question seems questionable. However, researchers at Clarkson University have used the Google hits method to "measure" the degree of celebrity status: "to establish a precise mathematical definition of fame, both in the sciences and in the world at large."[18]

Although there are few architects well known to the general public, "starchitects" are held in the highest esteem by their peers and by the professional media. Such status is marked not only by prestigious commissions but also by various awards; for example the AIA Gold Medal or the Pritzker Prize. The latter has been awarded since 1979, which attempts to increase its prestige by highlighting that its evaluative procedures are inspired by the same as those of the Nobel Prize.

In his 1979 book Architecture and its Interpretation, Juan Pablo Bonta presented a theory of how buildings and architects achieve canonical status.[19][20] He argued that a building and its architect achieve iconic or canonical status after a period in which various critics and historians construct an interpretation that then becomes unquestionable for a significant period. If the text itself is given canonical status, then the architect's status is further supported. For example, in the first edition of the book Space Time and Architecture") (1949) by Siegfried Giedion,[21]​[20][22]​ the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto is not mentioned at all. In the second edition he received more attention than any other architect, including Le Corbusier, who until then had been understood as the most important modernist architect.

The notion of granting celebrity status to architects is not new, but it is contained within the general trend, from the Renaissance onwards, status was granted to artists. Until the modern era, artists in Western civilization generally worked under a patron, usually the Church or state rulers, and their reputation could be commodified, so that their services could be purchased by different patrons.

One of the first records of celebrity status is the artist and architect Giorgio Vasari's monograph Le vite de 'più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori (in Spanish, Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects), first published in 1550, recording the Italian Renaissance at the time of its flowering. Vasari, himself under the patronage of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, even favored the architects of the city where he resided, Florence, attributing innovation to them, barely mentioning other cities or places further away. The importance of Vasari's book lay in the ability to consolidate reputation and status without people having to see the works described.[11] Thus, the development of media has been equally of central importance to architectural celebrity as to other walks of life.

While the status arising from the patronage of Church and State continued with the rise of the Enlightenment and capitalism (for example, the architect Christopher Wren's position in the patronage of the British Crown, the City of London, the Church of England and the University of Oxford during the century), there was an expansion in the artistic and architectural services available, each competing for commissions with the growth of industry and the middle classes. However, architects remained essentially servants of their clients "Customer (economics)"): while Romanticism and modernism "Modernism (philosophical and cultural movement)") in the other arts encouraged individualism, progress in architecture was mainly oriented towards improvements in building performance (comfort standards), engineering and the development of new building typologies (e.g. factories, train stations and later airports) and public benevolence (the problems of urbanization, public housing, overcrowding, etc.), but allowing some architects to concern themselves with architecture as an autonomous art (as happened with Art Nouveau "Modernism (art)") and Art Deco).[12] Modern architecture, particularly the Bauhaus school, generated theory and school on how architecture, design and industrial production should focus on social development.

Such publicity also reached the popular press: in the post-war era, Time magazine occasionally featured architects on its cover, for example, in addition to Le Corbusier, Eero Saarinen, Frank Lloyd Wright and also Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In more recent times, Time magazine has also featured Philip Johnson, Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid.

Eero Saarinen is a particularly interesting case because he specialized in building headquarters for prestigious American companies. Companies, such as General Motors, CBS and IBM, and these companies used architecture to promote their corporate images: for example, during the 1950s, General Motors often photographed its new car models in front of its headquarters in Michigan.[16]​.

Corporations have continued to understand the value of hiring starchitects to design their key buildings. For example, the manufacturing company Vitra is well known for the works of notable architects that make up its facilities in Weil am Rhein, Germany; including Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, ​​SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron, Álvaro Siza, Frank Gehry, among others; as did the Prada fashion house "Prada (fashion house)") for commissioning Rem Koolhaas to design its flagship stores in New York and Los Angeles. However, throughout history, the greatest prestige has come with the design of public buildings: opera houses, libraries, town halls and especially museums, often called the "new cathedrals" of our time.[17]​.

Objectivity in the status question seems questionable. However, researchers at Clarkson University have used the Google hits method to "measure" the degree of celebrity status: "to establish a precise mathematical definition of fame, both in the sciences and in the world at large."[18]

Although there are few architects well known to the general public, "starchitects" are held in the highest esteem by their peers and by the professional media. Such status is marked not only by prestigious commissions but also by various awards; for example the AIA Gold Medal or the Pritzker Prize. The latter has been awarded since 1979, which attempts to increase its prestige by highlighting that its evaluative procedures are inspired by the same as those of the Nobel Prize.

In his 1979 book Architecture and its Interpretation, Juan Pablo Bonta presented a theory of how buildings and architects achieve canonical status.[19][20] He argued that a building and its architect achieve iconic or canonical status after a period in which various critics and historians construct an interpretation that then becomes unquestionable for a significant period. If the text itself is given canonical status, then the architect's status is further supported. For example, in the first edition of the book Space Time and Architecture") (1949) by Siegfried Giedion,[21]​[20][22]​ the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto is not mentioned at all. In the second edition he received more attention than any other architect, including Le Corbusier, who until then had been understood as the most important modernist architect.