Edition: U.S. / Global  ARCHITECTURE VIEW; In Osaka Bay,
Spectacular Effects On a Human Scale  By Paul Goldberger
Published: August 14, 1994  IT MAY FINALLY HAVE HAPPENED an
airport that is as important a piece of monumental architecture
as the great train stations. That it should have been built in
Japan, a country that never had any great train stations to
speak of and where civic pride in transportation has always been
a matter of efficiency, not monumentality, merely adds a level
of paradox to this unusual project, which would have been
startling enough anywhere.  For the new Kansai International
Airport, scheduled to open Sept. 4, was built on a 1,300-acre
man-made island two miles out in Osaka Bay. It was designed by
Renzo Piano, the Italian architect who first came to public
attention through his design, with Richard Rogers, for the
Centre Beaubourg in Paris. The airport has been somewhat
controversial as a work of engineering, given that the island
took five years to construct, ate up at least $4 bill