in 2006, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, approached Renzo Piano to design an addition to Louis Kahn's masterpiece. Piano, Hon. FAIA, was a logical choice. He had to his credit two Texas museums-the Menil Collection and the Nasher Sculpture Center-that were themselves acknowledged masterpieces. And he had plenty of experience working on expansion projects for respected cultural institutions: the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. By all accounts, though, Piano was at first reluctant. It was a risky commission. In 1989, the first architect who accepted it, Romaldo Giurgola, FAIA, was publicly excoriated for his proposal to duplicate Kahn's design at each end. "Why ruin the masterwork of Kahn's life with such an ill-considered extension?" asked a letter to The New York Times, whose signatories included Philip Johnson, Richard Meier, FAIA, Frank Gehry, FAIA, and James Stirling. The expansion was canceled, and Giurgola retreated to Australia.
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