On the front page of today's Mansion section of the Wall Street Journal (go here), I interview architect Renzo Piano and husband-and-wife architects Billie Tsien and Tod Williams about their homes. These interviews are part of my ongoing series on world-class architects and the choices they've made with their own residences and living spaces. [Photo above of Billie and Tod's Central Park South penthouse by Bryan Derballa]
In the case of Renzo and Billie and Tod, both have two homes that they use regularly and in both cases they designed one with a spectacular view and renovated the other for a retreat. [Photo above of Renzo Piano's glass house and multistory office in Genoa, Italy, overlooking the Lugurian Sea]
Renzo [above] is one of the world's best-known designers of bold, game-changing buildings. His most recent is The Shard in London. Billie and Tod most recently designed the new Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia that opened in May 2012. But where do these architects live and what sorts of choices do they make for their own living spaces?
Renzo built a modern glass home on a hillside in in Genoa, Italy, that is in the style of greenhouses there. He also has an apartment in the Place des Vosges in Paris [above]. He spends two weeks in Paris, a week in Genoa and a week in the U.S. or wherever projects take him. As he told me, these two homes are extensions of his soul and he treats them like rooms in the same house separated by a flight and drive.
Billie and Tod designed a glass penthouse on the roof of a building on Central Park South in New York. They also renovated a duplex apartment in a building on the city's Upper West Side. As Billie said during our conversation at her duplex, one is their exposed glamour-pad that they use to think and entertain while the duplex is their cocoon—where they read, view their art and just watch TV.
JazzWax clips: See a slide show of Renzo Piano and Billie Tsien and Tod Williams's own homes (go here).
Here is a time-lapse video on Renzo Piano's The Shard in London...
Here's a time-lapse video on the Billie Tsien and Tod Williams's new Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia...
