Newport Museum Architect Finds Himself in Running for L.A. Project

Among the Newport Harbor Art Museum’s key criteria for choosing an architect to design its new home in Corona del Mar was that the person be an internationally recognized talent not represented by other major buildings in the Los Angeles area.

After an 18-month examination of dozens of architects, the museum’s search committee settled on Renzo Piano, a Paris-based Italian who was in Orange County last week for his first site visit.

On Thursday, however, it was announced that Piano is among six semifinalist candidates to design the Walt and Lily Disney Concert Hall, the future $50-million home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Did Newport Harbor officials know he was up for the project when they chose him in December and are they at all upset at the prospect of having to share with Disney Hall the spotlight of world attention they hope will follow Piano to Orange County?

“We knew he had gotten a letter from the Music Center and we absolutely encouraged him to go ahead and do it,” museum director Kevin E. Consey said Friday.

“We had not selected Renzo at that point, and we thought the fact that he was under consideration for the concert hall was his business. Yes, selecting a person who hadn’t done a building in Greater Los Angeles was important for us, but we can’t control the future.

“If Renzo does get the award,” Consey said, “I think that the two buildings are sufficiently different and that the attention to the two buildings might have synergistic effect. . . . Every time a (news) story would appear, the fact that somebody is doing two projects would not hurt us. I think there would be mentions of both.”

Consey also said he was not concerned that Piano’s time would be spread thin by working on two substantial cultural projects at the same time.

The architect for Disney Hall will be chosen in mid-1988, according to Frederick M. Nicholas, chairman of the Disney Hall Committee.

Meanwhile, Piano is also working on a nuclear technology center in Grenoble, France; a cultural and civic center in Vicenza, Italy, and a rehabilitation of a medieval fortress in Rhodes, Greece.

Nicholas also said it would not bother him to have Piano working on projects both in Los Angeles and Orange County. “We’re just trying to get the very best architectural talent to do Disney Hall we can, and Renzo Piano is one of the great architects of the world,” he said.

Nicholas showed considerable familiarity with the work for which Renzo is best known, the Georges Pompidou cultural center in Paris and the Menil Collection Museum in Houston.

“I felt his work at the Pompidou was outstanding,” Nicholas said, noting that the Pompidou includes a center for contemporary music.

“He has had involvement in both the acoustical and musical fields,” Nicholas said.

Despite his clear enthusiasm for Piano’s work, Nicholas said he is impressed by all six semifinalists. The others are Gottfried Boehm of Cologne, West Germany; Henry Nichols Cobb of I.M. Pei & Partners, New York City; Frank O. Gehry of Frank O. Gehry & Associates Inc. of Venice, Calif; Hans Hollein of Vienna, and James Stirling of James Stirling, Michael Wilford & Associates of London and Berlin.

Nicholas said the field of six semifinalists will be narrowed down to three or four finalists in about 30 days.