"When I was a boy growing up in Genova, my hometown, I loved two things: one was the sea and the other was cinema. The sea is immense to explore, and cinema is something that takes you in a different world, a fantastic world.”

Italian architect Renzo Piano spoke about his passion for movie-making as soon as he took the stage during the opening of the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Pritzker Prize-winning Piano renovated the 1939 Saban building, located on the intersection of Wilshire and Fairfax, adjacent to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as the famous La Brea Tar Pits.