John Portman’s Renaissance Center in Detroit. Arthur Drexler, longtime curator of Architecture and Design at New York’s Museum of Modern Art declared that John Portman was the only important architect of the seventies. © Michael Portman

Architect John Portman with a model of his signature project, Peachtree Center in Atlanta. © Tom Hamilton

Entelechy II is John Portman’s magnificent beach house, in Sea Island, GA. Portman’s homes served as the laboratories where he first experimented with design ideas later played out in cityscapes from New York’s Times Square to San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center. © Michael Portman

Yintai Centre in Beijing is, “my favorite of Portman’s Asian projects so far,” says architecture critic Paul Goldberger. The group of skyscrapers meet the ground nicely, and they meet the sky particularly nicely.” © Beijing Yintai Property Co., LTD. June 12, 2009

The atrium of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis is one of John Portman’s most dramatic. Architecture critic Paul Goldberger calls Portman’s architecture, “cinematic in a way. His buildings unfold as you go through them.” © Michael Portman

Looking up at the 22-story atrium of the Hyatt Regency hotel, with its central elevator core, built in 1967. Portman’s atrium designs have made him one of the most copied architects of his time. © Michael Portman

Architect John Portman talking with Ben Loeterman, director of John Portman: A Life of Building. © BLPI

Architect John Portman among the buildings of his signature project, Peachtree Center in Atlanta. © Michael Portman