Renzo PianoRenzo Piano was born on September 14, 1937 in Genoa, Italy, to a family of builders. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic of Milan in 1964. During his studies he often worked under the design guidance of Franco Albini, but in his free time he worked steadily at his father's construction workshop. This is where he truly developed a love for the craft. Between the years 1965 and 1970 he worked with many great architects such as Louis I. Kahn, Z. S. Makowsky and Jean Prouve, but the most influential collaboration in Piano's life was with Richard Rogers in 1971. His collaboration with Rogers led to many great things. One of these was the "Piano & Rogers" agency. Together Rogers and Piano designed numerous buildings in Italy and England. The most famous was the Pompidou Center, built in 1972 in Paris, France. This building was designed to house some of the most beautiful modern art in the world, so naturally the design had to be modern. It is constructed primarily of high-tech steel and glass, with a beautifully designed exoskeleton adding to its structure (Renzo Piano Building Workshop official website). Renzo Piano has designed and created many structures around the world. Some of his most famous include Kansai, the world's largest air terminal in Osaka Bay, Japan, where Piano proved himself a master of the gigantic project and again with the impressive Bercy shopping center in Paris, as well as a huge and beautiful Museum National Science Foundation. in Amsterdam. Its football stadium in Bari, Italy, is like no other in the world, with its great swathes of blue sky breaking up the usual monotony of stadium seating. His versatility is further demonstrated in projects such as the stunning, nearly thousand-foot-long bridge that curves across Ushibuka Bay in southern Japan, featuring a 70,000-ton luxury liner design (Great Buildings On-line). In 1998 Piano was selected as the winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. This is the profession's highest honor awarding a cash award of $100,000.00 and a gold medallion. The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to annually honor a living architect whose work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced coherent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through art of architecture..