Architect Renzo Piano has been commissioned to rebuild the Royal Opera House and City Gate in Valetta, the capital of Malta, reports the Times of Malta. Piano, who is well known for the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, will give a “special stamp to our country,” said Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi at a press conference, according to the Malta Independent.

The country’s palace, which until now has housed the parliament, will become a cultural center with a cultural heritage museum, while continuing to house the president’s office. It is “to become the city’s core,” going back “to its original function” said Gonzi.

The Royal Opera House was destroyed back in 1942 during World War II and has since been left largely untouched, with the exception of a few shops that opened there in years past and will now be relocated. Financing for the rebuilding project, which will cost between €60 and €80 million ($76.4–101.9 million), will come from public funds.