Antoine Chaaya is an architect DPLG (holder of an architecture degree delivered by the French State) and partner /director at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop – Paris. Born in Lebanon in 1960, he studied architecture at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) in Lebanon and after graduating, joined the Paris-based firm in 1987, wherein he worked as lead architect on a variety of projects, including the Kanak Cultural Center in New Caledonia and the Potsdamer Platz project in Berlin.

Since becoming a partner in 1997, he has been in charge of many other projects, including the Il Sole 24 Ore headquarters in Milan, The Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) and the Resnick Pavilion, both at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California.

His current projects include: Phase I of the new Columbia University Manhattanville Campus in New York, including the university’s first four academic buildings: The Jerome L. Greene Science Center, the Lenfest Center of the Arts, the Forum (Conference Center), and Site 4, which includes the Global and the Earth institutes; a residential project in Miami (Florida); the headquarters of SGBL Bank in Beirut (Lebanon); the Beirut City Museum (Lebanon); and the headquarters of Gaumont Pathé in Paris.

Elected as a distinguished alumnus at USEK, he was chosen as the patron of the 2017 class of graduating architects. He is also an honorary member of the Lebanese Green Building Council (LGBC).

He has lectured in France, Italy, Denmark, Lebanon, and the USA, in addition to giving talks at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and the AIA New York. Antoine was appointed as a member of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop board in 2014.