A member of the Bahai faith, Mr Amanat is also responsible for designing the administrative buildings of the Bahai World Centre, in Haifa
For 45 years, Iran's most famous modern monument, the Azadi (Freedom) Tower in Tehran, has been the backdrop to every major news story coming out of the country. A plaza for celebrations, anniversaries, military parades and a gathering point for mass demonstrations, the 50m (165ft) tall tower has overlooked some of Iran's most important political events.
Hossein Amanat was a rising star in Iran's architectural scene when, in 1966, he won a national competition to design the monument. Mr Amanat also left Iran just after the revolution and has not returned since.
Though the Azadi Tower has been damaged over time, Mr Amanat says he has never been personally approached or asked to help, even in an advisory role, with repairing it.
He now lives in Vancouver, Canada, where he has established a successful architecture firm and has designed buildings all over the world.
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During the Iranian revolution of 1979, the plaza around the tower soon became a meeting place for protesters to gather; and its draw for those going public with dissent continues to this day.
Most recently, the mass demonstrations that followed the disputed presidential election of 2009 drew hundreds of thousands to Azadi Tower, where they demanded a recount of their votes.
Mr Amanat says that, of all the events that the tower has witnessed, this one was "memorable".
For many Iranians living outside Iran, this surprising turn of events appeared to show a different side of the nation.
For Mr Amanat, the scenes were both personal and moving; he says the building was "like the embrace of a father, embracing all these people in front of it".
Its historical pull, he believes, lies in the tower's evolution as a "symbol of Iran", an aesthetic icon of the capital that is both intensely Iranian and Islamic at the same time.