Renzo Piano_{Complete Works 1966-2014}

Piano, virtuoso. This book covers the wide-ranging career of the master architect. "The array of buildings by Renzo Piano is staggering in scope and comprehensive in the diversity of scale, material, and form. He is truly an architect whose sensibilities represent the widest range of this and earlier centuries." Such was the description of Renzo Piano given by the Pritzker Prize jury as they bestowed the prestigious award on him in 1998. Whereas some architects have a signature style, what sets Piano apart is that he seeks simply to apply a coherent set of ideas to new projects in extraordinarily different ways. "One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time, it is like life starting all over again," Piano says. "Like a movie director doing a love story, a western, or a murder mystery, a new world confronts an architect with each project." This explains why it takes more than a superficial glance to recognize Piano's fingerprints on such varied projects as the Pompidou Center in Paris (1971-77), the Kansai airport in Osaka, Japan (1990-94), and The New York Times Building in New York (2000-07). This stunning monograph, illustrated by photographs, sketches, and plans, covers Piano's career to date. The updated publication includes new photographs of the now completed Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, his 66-story London Bridge Tower, and the Kimbell Art Museum Expansion in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as a sneak peek at his current project, Valletta City Gate in Valletta, Malta, which includes the construction of a new parliament building.