Breaking: Renzo Piano chosen to design Kimbell addition

Word has come out today that Renzo Piano has been chosen to design the planned 2nd building for the famed Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth’s Cultural District just outside downtown. Piano’s building will join the original 1972 structure by Louis Kahn, the last building Kahn designed before he died and regarded by many as his masterpiece, and one of the finest museum buildings in the world. The new building is likely to be built across the street from the existing Kimbell on land the museum purchased in 1998.

The new Renzo Piano addition to the Kimbell will add to an already incredible list of museum structures in Fort Worth’s Cultural District. Besides the original Kimbell building by Kahn, other noteworthy structures in the CD include the Amon Carter Museum and expansion, both designed by Philip Johnson, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, designed by Tadao Ando. Piano’s Kimbell addition is the second major museum project underway in the CD now, alongside the replacement for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History being designed by Ricardo Legorreta.