Yoshio Taniguchi

Yoshio Taniguchi (born October 17, 1937, Tokyo, Japan—died December 16, 2024) was a Japanese architect best known as the designer of the early 21st-century expansion of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

Yoshio Taniguchi was the son of Yoshiro Taniguchi, a noted figure in the modern architectural movement in Japan. He earned an undergraduate degree (1960) in mechanical engineering from Keiō University, Tokyo, and a master’s degree (1964) in architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He did design work for the architectural studio of Kenzō Tange from 1964 to 1972. Taniguchi then taught architecture at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and at the University of California, Los Angeles, before establishing his own practice in Tokyo in 1975.

Heeding his father’s advice to handle each of his assignments with care and not take on too many projects at one time, Taniguchi built up a successful practice, specializing in museums and other public buildings in Japan. He won numerous awards, including the 1987 Japan Academy of Art Prize for the Ken Domon Museum of Photography in Sakata and the 1990 Mainichi Art Award for the Tokyo Sea Life Park, a popular aquarium. In 1995 he designed the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, and in 1999 his Gallery of Horyuji Treasures opened at the Tokyo National Museum. His other museums in Japan included the Shiseido Art House (1978), Kakegawa; the Higashiyama Kaii Gallery (1990) at the Nagano Prefectural Museum, Nagano; the Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (1991), Marugame; and the Centennial Hall (2007) at the National Museum of Kyoto.

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In 1997 MoMA selected Taniguchi’s design for the museum’s planned expansion. Because of his belief that architecture should be an outgrowth of dialogue between architect and client, Taniguchi had never entered a competition before submitting his proposal to MoMA, and he was somewhat surprised to succeed over his more prominent competitors. His plan called for a dramatic reconfiguration of the museum that added large skylights to galleries, relocated the main entrance, and added two structures to expand exhibition space and to house an education and research complex. The two extensions flank MoMA’s iconic sculpture garden, making it the centre of the museum. Construction commenced in 2001, and the project was completed in 2004.

The MoMA commission—Taniguchi’s first outside Japan—thrust him into the international spotlight. He continued to pursue projects both inside and outside Japan, and in 2005 he received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for his contributions to architecture as a whole. His later projects included Asia House for the Asia Society Texas Center (2012), Houston; the Heisei Chishinkan wing at the Kyoto National Museum; Ginza Six (2017), a luxury mall in Tokyo featuring a facade inspired by traditional Japanese sunshades; and the Okura Tokyo (2019), a reconstruction of the iconic mid-century hotel designed by Taniguchi’s father.