Richard Meier

Richard Meier (b.1934) is one of America’s most distinguished architects and the winner in 1984 of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. This detailed monograph is a comprehensive study of his work from 1965-2002 and covers 90 of his buildings including his best-known Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. The book documents all stages of Meier’s career including his early private homes in the 60s and his work in the early 1970s when he came to prominence as one of the “New York Five”, whose new interpretation of the modern tradition shaped an alternative to the high-rise East Coast buildings of the time. The monograph continues with Meier’s more recent larger-scale projects in both American and Europe. These include the Sandra Day O’Connor United States Courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona (2000), Perry Street Condominiums in New York (2002) and the Jubilee Church in Rome, Italy (2004), with its distinctive curved form. Several essays by Meier provide an insight into the architect’s approach to designing buildings including his preference for the use of white, which he feels ‘enhances one’s perception of the basic architectural elements’. An introductory essay by the influential critic Kenneth Frampton discusses Meier’s architecture and its ‘tectonic, painterly exuberance’. A detailed chronology and bibliography complete this generously-illustrated record of Richard Meier’s career.