Renzo Piano in Chicago

Renzo Piano's addition to the Chicago Art Institute is open, and the NY Times has a slide show.

I am intrigued. A building for the display of modern art ought, I think, to be modern in style, and given that constraint -- which of course guarantees that I won't love the result -- it looks like Piano has done a good job. The building seems to be full of natural light, even though it must be filtered to protect the art works. And instead of creating some kind of monstrous sculpture that dominates its site, relegating the art to the background (I.M Pei in Washington, Gehry in Bilbao), he has built a gallery designed to display works of art. I find such modesty very becoming in a famous architect.