Vittorio Gregotti, an Italian architect who designed the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics stadium, died yesterday at the age of 92 after catching the novel coronavirus, Italian media said. Gregotti died of pneumonia after being hospitalized in Milan having contracted COVID-19, the AGI news agency and the Corrieredella Sera newspaper reported.

He also designed the Arcimboldi Opera Theatre in Milan, a futuristic structure built to allow the opera season to continue while the La Scala underwent renovation in 2002-2004.

Paying tribute, fellow Italian architect Stefano Boeri called Gregotti a "master of international architecture" who "created the story of our culture". "What a great sadness," he wrote on Facebook. Gregotti's wife Mariana Mazza has been hospitalized at the same Milan hospital, Corrieredella Sera said, without providing details on why. - AFP