Kimbell Art Museum

Louis Kahn's 1972 museum in Fort Worth is the quiet counterweight to every showier building here. Its long cycloid vaults are split by narrow skylights, and wing-shaped pierced aluminum reflectors spread daylight across the concrete, so the paintings sit in a soft silver light that changes through the day. This is one of the rare places where building and collection are equally strong: a compact, choice set of old masters that suits the intimate rooms. Renzo Piano's 2013 pavilion across the lawn answers Kahn politely, and seeing both shows how two masters handled the same brief about natural light.