Editing Renzo Piano (section)

===Menil Collection (1981–1987)===
In 1977 Piano ended his collaboration with Rogers and began a new collaboration with engineer [[Peter Rice (structural engineer)|Peter Rice]], who had assisted in the design of the Pompidou Center.{{Sfn|Taschen|2016|page=508}} They established their offices in Genoa. One of their first projects was a plan for the rehabilitation of the old port of [[Otranto]] from an industrial site into a commercial and tourist attraction (1977). Their first major building was the [[Menil Collection]], an art museum for the art collector [[Dominique de Menil]]. The chief requirements of the owner for this building was to make the maximum use of natural light in the interiors. Piano wrote, "Paradoxically, the Menil Collection, with its serenity, its calm, its discretion, is much more modern, scientifically speaking, than the Beaubourg."{{Sfn|Jodidio|2016|page=12}} The Menil Collection building, with its simple gray and white cubic forms, is the stylistic opposite of the Pompidou Center. The technological innovations were not expressed on the facade, but in the high-tech but discreet systems of shutters and screens and air conditioning which allowed maximum illumination while protecting against the intense Texas heat and sunlight.{{Sfn|Jodidio|2016|pages=25–27}}