MEIER, RICHARD

MEIER, RICHARD (1934– ), U.S. architect. Meier was born in Newark, N.J. Fifty years later in 1984, he became the youngest winner of the Pritzker architecture prize, one of the most heralded awards for architects. The road to this award and to many important architectural commissions began after Meier graduated from Cornell University in 1957. He worked for the firms of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and Marcel Breuer before establishing his own firm in 1963. Meier made his early mark with the designs for private residences, which recall the light and geometric designs of the Bauhaus, especially the form established by Mies van der Rohe as well as the Constructivists. Japanese architecture from the 17th century was also important in formulating Meier's aesthetic. The architect has suggested the strong influence of Le Corbusier in his work. Meier's early important commissions were for the Smith House in Darien, Conn., built between 1965 and 1967, followed by the Douglas House at Harbor Springs, Mich. in 1973, and the Shamberg residence, planned for two people, at Chappaqua, N.Y., from 1972 to 1974. He converted the Bell Telephone laboratories in Manhattan to 383 apartments and went on to design the Atheneum in New Harmony, Ind., 1975 to 1979, to much acclaim. In museum design, Meier has created striking designs in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Frankfurt (1981–84), the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (1981), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona (1992–95), and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (1997). Meier emphasizes white as an essential color in his design, which accentuates the power of the visual form. Meier's buildings are striking, especially against a simple grass landscape, as in the case with the Atheneum, the Des Moines Art Center extension, or the High Museum, where the whiteness and architectonic characteristics of the form are juxtaposed to the green landscape, resulting in a powerful but restful aesthetic. All of Meier's works stand as sculptural forms as well as functional buildings. Meier's most contested building is the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Sitting on the hillside that overlooks both Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the Getty is a series of buildings that seeks to bring together a huge and eclectic art collection. Driven by the immense resources of the Getty Foundation and the size of the collection, the museum space, comprised of six buildings, has been compared to an acropolis. To some, the scale of the project served to limit the architect's powers of invention. The uniformity of Meier's usual white exterior was compromised in part by a beige travertine. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: K. Frampton and J. Rykwet, Richard Meier, Architect (1985–2004); P. Goldberger, Richard Meier Houses (1996); R. Meier, Richard Meier (Electa's Modern Masters) (2003). (Stephen C. Feinstein (2nd ed.)