Twenty-five years after the inauguration of its current headquarters, the Italian Embassy in Washington celebrated the creators of the 'Palace on the Potomac' during an evening dedicated to Piero Sartogo and the importance of the role of Italian architecture in the United States.
The Ambassador of Italy to the United States, Mariangela Zappia, emphasised how the embassy building, combining tradition and innovation, 'best represents the identity and values of Italy, strongly rooted in its history, but always projected towards the future. Our atrium, always full of light thanks to the glass vault, recalls the Italian piazza: in fact, the building designed by Piero Sartogo was created as a place of work, but also as a space for meeting and exchanging ideas, as well as a permanent exhibition of Italian design'.
After the greetings of the Director of International Affairs of the City of Washington, Anthony Andrews, who emphasised how the Italian Embassy embellishes Massachusetts Avenue (also known as 'Embassy Row'), a conversation followed moderated by the founder of the New York-based studio Space4Architecture, Michele Busiri Vici, which was attended by Paola Antonelli, designer, curator of the architecture and design department at MoMA, Denise Costanzo, professor of architecture at Penn State University, and Nathalie Grenon, architect and colleague of Piero Sartogo.
The evening highlighted some important aspects of the work of architect Sartogo, who died in 2023, and his work in Rome, Milan, New York and Washington. In addition, the main stages from the planning to the realisation of the Italian Embassy, which has remained practically unchanged since the day it opened, were retraced. Stages retraced in the fine volume 'The Palace on the Potomac. L'Ambasciata d'Italia a Washington', edited by Ambassador Gaetano Cortese, which illustrates the history, structure and furnishings of the building, also offering a rich photographic apparatus. At the end, a plaque was unveiled at the entrance of the embassy in honour of Sartogo Architetti Associati and the embassy's design team, composed of Piero Sartogo, Nathalie Grenon and Susanna Nobili.
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