Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano was born on September 14, 1937 in Genoa, Italy, into a family of builders. He graduated from the school of Architecture, Milan Polytechnic in 1964. During his studies, he often worked under the design guidance of Franco Albini, but in his spare time he would work steadily at his fathers building shop. This is where he truly developed a love for the trade. Between the years 1965 and 1970 he worked with many great architects like, Louis I. Kahn, Z. S. Makowsky and Jean Prouve, but the most influential collaboration in Piano’s life was that with Richard Rogers in 1971. His collaboration with Rogers lead to many great things. One of which was the “Piano & Rogers” agency. Together Rogers and Piano designed a number of buildings in Italy and in England. Their most famous was the Pompidou Center built in 1972 in Paris, France. This building was designed to hold some of the worlds most beautiful modern art, so naturally the design had to be modern. It is constructed mostly of high-tech steel and glass, with a beautifully designed exoskeleton adding to its complexion (Renzo Piano Building Workshop Official Site). Renzo Piano has designed and brought to life so many structures all over the world. Some of his most famous include Kansai, the world's largest air terminal in Osaka Bay, Japan, where Piano proved himself a master of the gigantic project and again with the imposing Bercy Shopping Center in Paris, as well as a massive and beautiful National Science Museum in Amsterdam. His soccer stadium in Bari, Italy is like no other in the world, with its great swaths of blue sky interrupting the usual monotony of stadium seating. His versatility is displayed further in such projects as the beautiful sweep of a nearly one thousand foot long bridge that curves across Ushibuka Bay in Southern Japan, with the design of a 70,000-ton luxury ocean liner (Great Buildings On-line). In 1998 Piano was selected as the Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. This is the professions highest honor which bestows a $100,000.00 cash prize and a gold medallion. The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. Piano's architecture has been described as a "rare melding of art, architecture, and engineering in a truly remarkable synthesis” (Great Buildings On-line). Currently He owns and runs his own architectural agency with offices in Genoa, Paris, and Berlin, under the name Renzo Piano Building Workshop. With several works in progress at this time, both in Europe and the United States the future is promising for this 60-year-old Italian architect. His current projects in the United States include, The University of Michigan Law expansion, the Renovation and Expansion of Morgan Library in New York City, and the New York Times Building. Each individual work has solely confirmed his place in architectural history, and the future holds even greater promise (Renzo Piano Building Workshop Official Site).

Renzo Piano has also made his mark right here in Houston, Texas with the remarkable Menil Collection Museum. Construction for this museum was completed in 1986 for world-renowned art collector, Dominique de Menil. Not only was this museum constructed to showcase her ever-growing collection, but also as a center for music, literature, theatre and cultural educational activities (Gossel & Leuthauser, P. 383). The plot was a small park surrounded by low residential housing and the idea of the museum was to be free of all stylistic borrowings, flexible and open, and above all else, it was to be illuminated with natural light. This specification was one to which Piano subordinated all other design stages. He was the man for the job. Piano treated this project like many others. He devoted all of his time and effort to the flawless design and construction of this modern museum. He approached this work as he does all others, he attempted to comprehend the ideological reasons for the project, what lay behind it, what constitutes its social and formal innovations (Goldberger, P. 232). He always builds from the inside out, or so to speak. He takes into consideration the functional purpose of the space and tries to get a feel for what the structure should look like by merely examining the objects it is to house. Much like his other works, the Menil Collection Museum was to be an incredible visual experience of modern architecture way before its time. This is a typical design concept when you look at Piano’s many works. For example, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. Although its construction took place some time before this museum,