Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano
Pompidou centre, Paris
Personal information
Nationality	Italian
Born	14 September 1937 (1937-09-14) (age 73) Genoa
Work
Buildings	Centre Georges Pompidou Parco della Musica Shard London Bridge
Awards	Pritzker Architecture Prize AIA Gold Medal Sonning Prize

Nemo Science Centre in Amsterdam. The shape reflects the tunnel entrance it is built on

City Tech Tower a skyscraper concept by Renzo Piano in Brooklyn, New York City.

The Living Roof of the California Academy of Sciences, a museum and research facility in San Francisco, California

Renzo Piano (born 14 September 1937) is a world renowned Italian architect and recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize. One admirer said the "serenity of his best buildings can almost make you believe that we live in a civilized world".^[1] His work also has its strong critics, to the point of being called "a hodgepodge of tents, greenhouses and scaffolding."

1 Biography
2 Select projects
- 2.1 Current
- 2.2 Completed
3 References
4 External links

Biography

Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1937 and maintains a home and office (Building Workshop) in the area. He was educated and subsequently taught at the Politecnico di Milano. He graduated from the University in 1964 and began working with experimental lightweight structures and basic shelters.^[2] From 1965 to 1970 he worked with Louis Kahn and with Makowsky. He worked together with Richard Rogers from 1971 to 1978; their most famous joint project is the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1977). He also had a long collaboration with the engineer Peter Rice.

In 1981, Piano founded the "Renzo Piano Building Workshop", employing a hundred people with offices in Paris, Genoa, and New York.^[2]

On 18 March 2008, he became an honorary citizen of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[3]

Piano's recent expansion of the Art Institute of Chicago includes a 264,000 square foot wing with 60,000 square feet of gallery space^[4] called the Modern Wing, which opened on 16 May 2009.^[1]^[5] It includes a "flying carpet", a sunscreen that hovers above the roof and a 620-foot steel bridge connecting Millennium Park to a sculpture terrace that leads into a restaurant on the wing’s third floor.^[6]

Select projects

Current

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens (2009-)
City Gate, Royal Opera House, Parliament of Malta, and Freedom Square, Valletta, Malta (2009/10-)
Renzo Piano Tower I & II, San Francisco, California (2006-)
Trans National Place, Boston, Massachusetts (2006-)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York (2005-)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts (2005-)
Sesto San Giovanni Masterplan, Milan, Italy (2004-)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2003-)
Shard London Bridge, London
Manhattanville Campus Master Plan and Jerome L. Greene Science Center, Columbia University, New York City, New York (2004-)

Completed

Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, expansion project (2009)
Nichols Bridgeway, Chicago, Illinois (2009)
California Academy of Sciences rebuilding, San Francisco, California (2008)
Vulcano Buono shopping mall, Nola, Italy (2007)
The New York Times Building on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City (2003–2007)
Rocca di Frassinello Winery, Gavorrano, Italy (2002–2007)
Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland (2006)
Morgan Library Expansion, New York, New York (2003–2006)
Cité Internationale, Lyon, France (1995–2006)
Weltstadthaus on Schildergasse, Cologne, Germany (2005)
High Museum of Art Expansion, Atlanta, Georgia (2005)
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas (opened 2003)
Parco della Musica auditorium, Rome, Italy (2002)
Maison Hermès, Tokyo (2001)
Auditorium Paganini, Parma, Italy (2001)
Aurora Place, Sydney, Australia (1996–2000)
Swatch 'Jelly Piano' wristwatch, 1999 Summer Collection model. "My most proud work" (Piano, 2001)
Stadio San Nicola, Bari, Italy (1988–1989)
Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, Nouméa, New Caledonia (1991–98)
Beyeler Foundation Museum, Basel, Switzerland (1997)
NEMO science museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1997)
Kansai International Airport, Osaka (Japan) (1987–1990)
Menil Collection, Houston, Texas (opened 1987)
Banca CIS building, Cagliari, Sardinia (1985)
IBM Travelling Pavilion
IRCAM & the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (1972–1977)

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Ouroussof, Nicolai (May 13, 2009). "Renzo Piano Embraces Chicago". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/arts/design/14muse.html. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 "Renzo Piano: Environmentally Progressive Concept Design for Athens' Modern Urban Icon, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC)". 2009-01-27. http://www.itnewsonline.com/showprnstory.php?storyid=31504. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
↑ Renzo Piano počasni građanin Sarajeva
↑ Smith, Roberta (May 13, 2009). "A Grand and Intimate Modern Art Trove". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/arts/design/14inst.html. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
↑ Ouroussof, Nicolai (May 13, 2009). "Renzo Piano Embraces Chicago (slide show)". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/13/arts/20090513_INSTITUTE_SLIDESHOW_index.html. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
↑ Barliant, Claire. "Museum Memory." Modern Painters, April 2009.

External links

Pritzker Prize laureates

Philip Johnson (1979) · Luis Barragán (1980) · James Stirling (1981) · Kevin Roche (1982) · I. M. Pei (1983) · Richard Meier (1984) · Hans Hollein (1985) · Gottfried Böhm (1986) · Kenzo Tange (1987) · Gordon Bunshaft and Oscar Niemeyer (1988) · Frank Gehry (1989) · Aldo Rossi (1990) · Robert Venturi (1991) · Álvaro Siza Vieira (1992) · Fumihiko Maki (1993) · Christian de Portzamparc (1994) · Tadao Ando (1995) · Rafael Moneo (1996) · Sverre Fehn (1997) · Renzo Piano (1998) · Norman Foster (1999) · Rem Koolhaas (2000) · Herzog & de Meuron (2001) · Glenn Murcutt (2002) · Jørn Utzon (2003) · Zaha Hadid (2004) · Thom Mayne (2005) · Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006) · Richard Rogers (2007) · Jean Nouvel (2008) · Peter Zumthor (2009) · Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA (2010)