Renzo Piano, the architect in charge of the ongoing Fogg Art Museum renovations, gave a lecture yesterday in Sanders Theater. He was also chosen to design an art museum in Allston that is on hold indefinitely.

CORRECTION APPENDED

Renzo Piano—the prize-winning architect who was tapped to renovate the Fogg Art Museum and design a new art museum in Allston—described the difficulties of the upcoming projects to a packed Sanders Theatre audience last night. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

“We have a building to make, but we do not have a site,” said Piano, commenting on the difficulty of redesigning the Cambridge art museums in conjunction with surrounding historic buildings.

“It [will be] all about cutting, it’s about doing [something] that is also unique,” he said.

According to Harvard University Art Museums’ (HUAM) Director of Communications Daron J. Manoogian, Piano’s renovations will preserve the historic elements of the 1927 Fogg Museum’s original building while adding a new wing to the museum. This large wing will take the place of a series of previous additions, which have been added piecemeal to the Fogg over the past 80 years.

Of the three projects that he has been commissioned to develop in the Boston area, Piano indicated that his contribution to the Allston museums, which are still in the conceptual stage, will be the most difficult.

“That’s a great challenge,” he said “It’s going to be the greatest challenge you can think about, because it’s a challenge about social integration, about sustainability, about identity.”

The Allston museum project was put on hold indefinitely as the University decided to push through proposals for the first science complex and HUAM prioritized the renovation of existing structures.

Winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize and renowned for his iconic incorporation of natural light and the environment into his designs, Piano has also been commissioned to develop expansions of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

During the lecture, Piano also discussed his love of architecture and his personal design philosophy.

“[Architecture] doesn’t only answer needs,” he said. “It answers to desires, to dreams, so it’s a very complex profession.”

Comprised of local residents, architects, and art intellectuals, the audience applauded enthusiastically for both Piano’s ideology and specific plan for HUAM.

“I like what I see here much more than everything else he showed us,” said local architect Gerrit Zwart after examining the model of Piano’s plans for the HUAM renovation in reference to the slide show of previous achievements which Piano displayed throughout his lecture.

CORRECTION

The Mar. 10 news article "Fogg Architect Describes Plans" incorrectly stated that the architect Renzo Piano was slated to design a new art museum in Allston. In fact, Piano was not tapped to design the Allston museum, according to University spokesman John D. Longbrake.