Piano's other buildings include the Menil Museum, Houston (1981-86), known particularly for the leaflike ferroconcrete louvers that filter the light from its transparent roof; the vast Kansai Air Terminal, Osaka (1994); the long, low, and elegantly simple Beyeler Foundation museum, Riehen, Switzerland (1997); and the Tjibaou Cultural Center, Nouméa, New Caledonia (1998), featuring wooden staves reminiscent of local Kanak huts. His 21st-century projects include the naturally illuminated Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Tex. (2003); the innovative Padre Pio Church, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy (2004); the undulating Paul Klee Center, Bern, Switzerland (2005); the light-filled addition to the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City (2006); the sharp-edged 52-story New York Times Building, also in Manhattan (2007); the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, an addition to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2008); the glass and steel California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco (2008), capped by an earth-covered roof filled with verdant mounds of living plants and punctuated by dozens of round skylights; and the light-suffused, glass-roofed modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009). Piano was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1998.
Bibliography
See his On Tour with Renzo Piano (2004); P. Buchanan, Renzo Piano Building Workshop (4 vol., 1999-2003); studies by A. Cuito, ed. (1989), P. Jodidio (2005), F. Irace (2007), and V. Newhouse (2007).
