Architecture For And As Art

Join award-winning architect Hiroshi Okamoto, a founding principal of OLI Architecture, and celebrated architecture and art photographer Peter Vanderwarker as they discuss OLI’s projects that are both for art and art themselves. Okamoto apprenticed with I. M. Pei for many years before starting his own firm, and OLI’s portfolio of projects blur the line between architecture and art.

Hiroshi Okamoto is a member of the AIA and a LEED Accredited Professional who graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Architecture degree and from MIT with a Master of Science degree in Architectural Studies.

From 2001 to 2012, Okamoto worked with I. M. Pei on the Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2002); as a Designer, Site Representative, and Construction Administrator of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (2008); and as the Project Architect of the Chapel at the Miho Institute of Aesthetics, Shigaraki, Japan (2012), I.M. Pei’s last project. From 2008-2012, Okamoto was an independent design consultant and the Design Architect and Project Manager for the Museum of Islamic Art Park in Doha, where–in collaboration with Richard Serra–he designed a cantilevered stone pier for Serra’s sculpture 7 (2011).

In 2010, Okamoto co-founded OLI Architecture PLLC and has been the design principal and project architect for the MuXin Art Museum (2015); the Chengdu Silk Art Culture Museum (2016); and the Museum of Islamic Art Renovation, Doha, Qatar (2017).

Other notable projects led by Okamoto are: the Tencent Shanghai Cloud Services Office (2018); the signage and environmental graphic design for OMA’s Tencent Beijing HQ in collaboration with Pentagram (2018); the Y Poly Office and Gallery (2018); the retail concept designs for Amplitude (2018 – ongoing); the homegrown high-end cosmetic line launched by the Japanese cosmetic giant, POLA; and the London Cross Pavilion, a purpose-built private commission in Westchester, NY, to house Richard Serra’s London Cross (2020).
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Peter Vanderwarker is a freelance photographer and author whose work interprets both natural and man-made environments. Peter has a degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley and was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University in 1996 and 1997, and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation for his work. His prints are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Addison Gallery of American Art.