Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti has died from complications of the coronavirus, the Corriere della Sera newspaper and AGI news agency reported.
After being hospitalized in Milan on Sunday, Gregotti died of pneumonia, having fallen ill with Covid-19. According to Corriere della Sera, Gregotti’s wife, Mariana Mazza, has been hospitalized at the same Milan hospital.
Born in Novara, the 92-year-old architect helped design the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics stadium. Other notable works include the Marassi stadium in Genoa for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, and the Arcimboldi opera theatre in Milan, which hosted performances during La Scala’s renovation between 2002 and 2004.
Gregotti’s career also saw him build Pujiang New Town, a housing district in Shanghai built around Italian architectural principles, the Belém cultural centre in Portugal and the Grand Théâtre de Provence in France.
After receiving an architecture degree from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1952, Gregotti worked for B.B.P.R., an architecture and design studio in the city, founded his own firm in 1974, and served as the editor in chief of the Italian architecture magazine Casabella during the 1950s and ’60s.
Gregotti was also a respected architectural theorist. He wrote on architecture theory, taught architecture at various universities, and twice directed the visual arts section of the Venice Biennale during the 1970s.