Name Dropping

credit: National Environmental Education Week

When Balazs Bognar moved to Tokyo from Urbana, Ill., at age 17, he had no idea he'd end up living there for the rest of his life.

"He would take me and my mom and my brothers to cities around the country around his research and work on buildings," the 45-year-old architect tells the News-Gazette.

"I'm definitely the apple that didn't fall far from the tree."

Bognar went on to earn a master's degree in architecture from Harvard in 2000 and a bachelor's in architecture from the University of Illinois in 1996.

Now a partner at Kengo Kuma & Associates in Tokyo, Bognar has designed buildings in more than 30 countries, including the main stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo, and the Portland Japanese Garden cultural village in Oregon, among others.

"I was surprised by the impact, of the cornfields and grain silos, and the beauty of the land," he tells the News-Gazette.

"It is nostalgic for me, but also the overlap with minimalist Japanese aesthetics."

Bognar's father, Botond Bognar, is the Edgar A.afel chair in architecture at the University of Illinois.

His brother, Aman Bali

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