Norman Foster was born north of Stockport, then a part of Lancashire, in 1935. His father was a machine painter and his mother worked in a local bakery. Foster was a quiet student who escaped bullying by reading. At 16, he left school and began working at the Manchester Town Hall. By chance he took a job as an assistant at the architecture firm of John E. Beardshaw and Partners. Foster’s drawings were so impressive that he was promoted to the drawing department, and from there pursued degrees in architecture and design. Foster’s studio is the U.K.’s largest, and his is the vision behind Hong Kong’s HSBC building, London’s Millennium Tower, and Stansted Airport. In 1999, he was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize. Foster’s groundbreaking career is the subject of this mega exhibition, which occupies almost 2,000 square feet and presents drawings, workbooks, and hundreds of models and prototypes. —Elena Clavarino