Piano Named Architect for Newport’s Museum

Italian architect Renzo Piano was unanimously selected Thursday night by the trustees of the Newport Harbor Art Museum to design a $20-million museum that Newport officials hope will bring the museum the international attention accorded to Piano’s other buildings.

If all goes as planned, the museum will rise within the next few years on a 10 1/2-acre site near the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and East Coast Highway in Corona del Mar.

“The selection of this world-acclaimed architect is yet another step toward creating for the county an internationally significant museum consistent with the growing national and international reputation of the Newport Harbor Art Museum,” said Rogue Hemley, chairman of the museum’s 37-member board of trustees.

“We went for Renzo Piano for his interface with technology and architecture. We were impressed with his ability to introduce technology with the use of natural light and a very scientific and intellectual approach to architecture.”

The choice concludes an 18-month search that began with the 110 firms whose names Newport officials collected from the deans of 25 schools of architecture, 10 leading architecture critics and 10 museum directors nationally, museum director Kevin E. Consey said Thursday night. Piano is best known for co-designing the Centre Georges Pompidou cultural center in Paris, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

Consey said he and other officials were pleased that Piano got the job because he is known for designing museums that are functional, as well as attractive and interesting. “Not only do we want a beautiful building, but we absolutely need a building that is an instrument of museology. We have an important function to carry out in this container. The most important thing is, it has to work.”

The three finalists before a Wednesday night meeting at which the museum’s architecture committee recommended Piano included leading U.S. architect Charles W. Moore and Mexico City-based Ricardo Legorreta.

“It was a very difficult decision,” said Hemley, referring to the search, which led them this summer to Paris to interview Piano and view his Centre Georges Pompidou, which generated both heated criticism and praise.

The Architecture Committee’s 13 members also visited buildings by six other architects before narrowing the field to Piano, Legorreta and Moore.