Chicago

Photo: Michelle Litvin for The New York Times

Renzo Piano's Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago
Nicholas Ourousoff:

It is this obsessive refinement that raises Mr. Piano's best architecture to the level of art. In an age with few idealists, he exudes a touching faith in the value of slow, incremental progress. He has never fully abandoned the belief that machines can elevate as well as destroy. The beauty of his designs stems from his stubborn insistence that the placement of a column or a window, when done with enough patience and care, brings us a step closer to a more enlightened society.

Slideshow here.