Photo of lecture on Renzo Piano's Architecture

Renzo Piano Panel

Renzo Piano Panel Image

The Humanistic Legacy

in Renzo Piano’s Architecture: A Panel

with Martin Filler (Architecture Critic, The New York Review of Books) and Prof. Kenneth Frampton (Columbia University), moderated by Arch.Giovanni Santamaria (New York Institute of Technology). Introduced by Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair, MSU).

Thursday, September 26, 2013
6:00 – 8:00 PM
Montclair State University
University Hall Conference Center (7th Floor)
Free and open to the public

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After providing an overview of Renzo Piano’s career spanning almost four decades from the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1977) to the Shard in London (2012), this panel focuses on the legacy of Italian humanism in his projects and on his role in the architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries. Special emphasis will be placed on the New York City projects, both completed and in progress.

  • Organized and sponsored by the Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies at Montclair State University, NJ
  • In collaboration with the Art History Program and Honors Program at Montclair State University and the Consulate of Italy in Newark, NJ
  • Special thanks to the Amici Italian Club

About Martin Filler (Architecture Critic, The New York Review of Books)
A graduate of Columbia University (Art History), Filler is a prominent architecture critic and author of the widely-praised Makers of Modern Architecture, a two-volume collection of his writings on modern architecture that are based on essays written for the NYRB since 1985. An essay on Renzo Piano’s works appear in each volume. An active contributor on topics related to art, architecture and design in newspapers, blogs, and magazines including The New York Times, The New Republic, and Art in America, Filler was an editor of the magazine House and Garden for nearly thirty years. He has also guest curated exhibits on American Design for the Whitney and the Brooklyn Museums. In 2003 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
About Prof. Kenneth Frampton (Columbia University)
Frampton is a British architect, critic, historian and Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), where he has taught since 1972. His many influential publications include the books Modern Architecture: A Critical History (1980),Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture (1995), and Labour, Work and Architecture: Collected Essays on Architecture and Design (2002); along with a famous 1983 article “”Towards a Critical Regionalism.” He has also taught at Princeton University (1966–71) and at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London. In 1972 he became a fellow of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York and a co-founding editor of its magazine Oppositions. An expert on modernism, Frampton has written on Piano in a variety of occasions, notably for the book The Renzo Piano Logbook (1997).
About Arch. Giovanni Santamaria (New York Institute of Technology, Manhattan campus)
Santamaria earned his degree in Architecture from the I.U.A.V. of Venice and a Ph.D. in Architecture and Urban Design from the Politecnico di Milano. At NYIT he has been teaching several urban and regional design studios since 2007 and co-created the International Exchange Program with the Politecnico di Milano. The key focus of his research is the shift of the Urban Design perspective towards a more articulated concept of Landscape Urbanism/Architecture that integrates historical and geographical environments with sophisticated technologies and alternative energy processes. The recipient of awards and special mentions for design projects, he participated in many exhibits, including the Venice Biennale. He is the author of New York-Milano: Disegno della città per la regione urbana and a variety of essays published in books and architecture magazines.

This event is part of 2013 Year of Italian Culture in the United States, an initiative held under the auspices of the President of the Italian Republic, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Italy, and supported by the Corporate Ambassadors Eni and Intesa Sanpaolo

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