人和書 ( Men and Books) : Richard Meier & Partners

Richard Meier & Partners,
Complete Works 1963-2008
Philip Jodidio
Hardcover, 30.5 x 39 cm,
568 pages, £ 80.00
ISBN 978-3-8228-3683-5

The great American architect's career to date

From the early days as a member of the New York Five, Richard Meier has been a central figure in contemporary architecture in the United States. With the Getty Center and more recent buildings such as the Jubilee Church in Rome, the New Yorker has cemented his reputation as a truly international figure who has expanded the horizons of contemporary American architecture while maintaining his rigorous approach to design and detailing. Known for carefully conceived grid plans and frequent use of white, Richard Meier is a master of light and space, able to adapt his style to very different circumstances and locations.

The entire span of Meier's career, right up to his most recent designs for New York and Shenzhen, is included in this exceptional volume, created in close collaboration between the architect, the author, and the eminent graphic designer Massimo Vignelli. This spectacular monograph displays Meier's work in unprecedented size and brilliance, and features a preface by the noted Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza.

Wikipedia article "Richard Meier".

Richard Meier (born October 12, 1934 in Newark, New Jersey) is an influential, contemporary American architect known for his rationalist designs and the use of the color white.

He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University in 1957, worked for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill briefly in 1959, and then for Marcel Breuer for three years, prior to starting his own practice in New York in 1963. Identified as one of The New York Five in 1972, his commission of the Getty Center Museum in Los Angeles, California catapulted his popularity among the mainstream.

Much of Meier's work builds on the work of the architectural masters of the early to mid-20th century- especially that of Le Corbusier and, in particular, Le Corbusier's early phase. In fact, it might be said that Meier has probably built more using Corbusier's ideas than anyone, including Le Corbusier himself^{[citation needed]}. Meier expanded many ideas evident in Le Corbusier's work, particularly the Villa Savoye and the Swiss Pavilion.

His work also reflects the influences of other master designers such as Mies Van der Rohe and, in some instances, Frank Lloyd Wright and Luis Barragán (without the colour)^{[citation needed]}. White has been used in many architectural landmark buildings throughout history, including cathedrals and the white-washed villages of the Mediterranean region, in Spain, southern Italy and Greece.

In 1984, Meier was awarded the Pritzker Prize.