Just this month, The Center for Performing Arts & Innovation held a press conference announcing Renzo Piano Building Workshop as the design architect selected for the future site.
The search for The Center’s architect attracted incredible international interest from renowned firms contending for the coveted title of Design Architect. After 22 design firms responded with interest in the project’s RFP, The Arts & Innovation Building Committee, led by Board Member Camilo Miguel, Jr. of Mast Capital, assessed each proposal through an extensive selection process accounting for factors such as project capacity, market fit, exclusivity, and more.
The committee selected 10 finalists after which four internationally acclaimed firms were ultimately shortlisted. Of the four finalists, three were prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize winners: Foster + Partners (London), OMA (Rotterdam) and RPBW Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Paris/Genoa).
rendering of The Center
The Pritzker Architecture Prize, often referred to as “architecture’s Nobel†and “the profession’s highest honor,” is awarded each year to a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. This speaks to the regional and global significance of this tremendous project.
Andrea Virgin
“The selection of these firms was based on their incredible contributions to architectural excellence, their tremendously compelling proposals that resonated with the essence of our project, and, most importantly, their keen understanding and enthusiasm for the significance of this legacy project for our city, region and the world at large,†said Andrea Virgin, PE, LEED AP, Chair and CEO.
September 6th, 2023 will mark a notable milestone for The Center for Arts & Innovation and equally The City of Boca Raton. Over five years ago, Andrea Virgin came up with the idea for The Center and just last ear the Boca Raton City Council approved the plans. Held at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, the site where The Center will be built, plans for the future site seemed to grow some legs when the Design Architect, Renzo Piano Building Workshop or “RPWB” was announced.
“We have been a city very long known for the visionary who was Addison Mizner, we have established our first hundred years as a city on the pillars of this great man,†Virgin said. “Today, we gather to honor that past, but too, just as Mizner did, inspire the future, to build upon those pillars for our greater tomorrow and the architect we selected will undoubtedly do that for us in a way that honors our great heritage.â€
Renzo Piano
Renowned design architect Renzo Piano was born 1937 in Genoa, Italy to a family of builders. Renzo studied architecture at the University of Florence and Polytechnic University of Milan. In 1970, he received his first international commission, for the Pavilion of Italian Industry for Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan which he collaborated with his brother Ermanno and the family firm. After receiving great admiration for his work, this was a catalyst for the rest of his career and foundation for The Renzo Piano Building Workshop established in 1981.
In addition to his most notable design award, Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2013, Piano also received The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal and the Sonning Prize, among man others. Piano brings extraordinary experience, skills and talent to each design project. As one of the world’s most sought-after architects, Renzo Piano engages in only two to three new projects per year.
Andrea Virgin, Antoine Chaaya (RPBW), Mayor Scott Singer, Dick Schmidt
Alongside visionaries, local press and media, and local elected officials including The City of Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, The Center for Arts & Innovation announced their most significant project milestone to date. Next,
“Culture and art are essential—they shape our society, improve our quality of life, influence our behavior in making us more human, and help us to better connect with one another. The programming of The Center and its architecture must play in harmony, so that the project becomes a cultural and artistic destination.†Antoine Chaaya, Partner in charge of the new project.
To learn more about The Center for Arts & Innovation, visit https://thecenterforartsandinnovation.org/