Italian architect Renzo Piano this week showed he’s not too famous to take a little criticism, after revealing a significantly revised design for his latest American project, a $100 million headquarters for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Instead of two glass cubes set on the same grid and joined by a circulation zone in between, Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) showed the city’s design review panel a new plan that still has two glass cubes, but one is now rotated 45 degrees off the grid of the other.

In addition, one section of the center that previously had been lifted off the ground to leave open space underneath is now shorter and the open space has been enclosed, with a cafe on the first level. It reads more as a separate building with its own identity, resulting in a more dynamic composition overall.

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