George Yu, a pioneer in digital architecture, died in Los Angeles of a type of lung cancer that afflicts nonsmokers. He was 43 years old. As both a designer and teacher, Yu helped shape the way that architects envision and use new technologies such as digital imaging and fabrication. But his work always kept the human user in the foreground, never turning technology into an ideology or fetish. He was able to do this, in part, by developing a keen sense for materials, light, and space. Photo © Gary Leonard George Yu Related Links: George Yu Exhibits in the 2004

Toronto, Canada Gehry International Photo courtesy David Thomson The late media mogul, art collector, and patron Kenneth Thomson David Thomson Clifford Pearson: What was your relationship to your father and this project? David Thomson: My father and I were very close. We both pursued art. It was an extension of our relationship. Frank and my father really connected on this project. The intensity of feeling between them was remarkable and is reflected, I think, in the spaces Frank created for the art. This was the special outcome of this project. Frank’s relationship with my father allowed him to take more

Toronto, Canada Gehry International Photo courtesy AGO Photographic Resources AGO director and CEO Matthew Teitelbaum Matthew Teitelbaum Clifford Pearson: What was your thinking at the start of this project? Matthew Teitelbaum: In the beginning, we had two main goals—to create some great new spaces for art and to fix some of the circulation problems we had. This was our seventh expansion so the museum had grown piece by piece by piece. As we started working with Frank, we developed more specific goals. We wanted to establish a clear destination for the art, so visitors can encounter it quickly and directly.

Toronto, Canada Gehry International Photo © Thomas Mayer Toronto native Frank Gehry Frank Gehry’s has seen his signature titanium-clad buildings rise throughout the world, but until recently, this Toronto native had never designed a single structure in Canada. In November 2008, his addition to the Art Gallery of Toronto opened to the public, only a few miles away from his grandmother’s former home. Since it’s inception in 1900, the AGO has expanded significantly, adding new wings and facades by a variety of architects. While planning his contribution, Gehry worked closely with Matthew Teitelbaum, director and CEO of the AGO, and

From Beaubourg to New Caledonia, the man and his Workshop have reimagined places for art, culture, people, and commerce. To understand Renzo Piano’s five-decade-long career, we need to examine his remarkably fluid journey from architectural rebel to cultural establishment go-to man. The bearded provocateur who experimented with movable structures in the 1960s and, with Richard Rogers, inserted a colorful Tinkertoy in the staid center of Paris in the 1970s has evolved into the trusted hand of museum boards and corporate clients. His work no longer challenges the way we view architecture or topples established notions of design, but it impresses