Richard Alan Meier


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Name: Richard Alan Meier,
Date of Birth: 12th October 1934.
Country: United States of America
Firm: Richard Meier & Partner Architects LLP


Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1934, Richard Meier graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University in 1957. After graduation he backpacked to Europe in hope of joining his life-long idol, the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. Although Meier was able to meet Corbusier in Paris, the master would not hire him or any other American, during that time, since Corbusier believed that several major commissions throughout his career had been lost because of Americans. During his early career in New York, Meier was an architect by day and an abstract expressionist painter at night. For a period of time he shared a studio with his close friend Frank Stella. Meier eventually gave up painting to fully devote himself to architecture, although he continued to work on his collages. After returning to New York he briefly worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and then for about three years with Marcel Breuer, a product of the German Bauhaus and former partner of Walter Gropius, before initiating his own venture in New York, 1963.

His works are inspired by the architects of early to mid 20th century, specially those of Le Corbusier. His work also traces the influences of designers such as Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Luis Barragán. His dedication to the Modernist Movement in architecture earned him the mantle of being one of the famous ‘New York Five;’ which included, besides Meier, the great names of the Post Modern Movement: John Hejduk, Charles Gwathmey, Michael Graves and Peter Eisenman. During the 1960’s, Meier was a professor of design at Cooper Unioin, Mahattan; followed by teaching appointments at Syracuse and Ivy League Universities like Princeton, Yale and Harvard.    

Meier’s USP is in creating designs with a unified theme, based on neo-modern beliefs in purist architecture. His passion for the colour white is evident in his structural masterpieces that have created a new design vocabulary. His practice has included housing and private residences, museums, high-tech and medical facilities, commercial buildings and major civic commissions, like courthouses and city halls in the United States and Europe. His groundbreaking works include the High Museum in Atlanta, 1975; the Canal+ Television Headquarters, 1988; the Jubilee Church, 1996 and the Malibu Beach House, 2002.

The concept of light, colour and place play a significant role in his works. His artistic interplay of simple geometric designs, combined with layered definition of space and effects of light and shade have resulted in some of the most magnificent modern architecture structures. According to Meier, there are ten factors that connect a structure to its environment, the most important being the potential of a space to transform itself into a place. The others include the ‘mode of being,’ i.e. factors which emphasise the presence of the building, those that establish the structure as a separate identity, those that encourage fantasy and play, those that preserve a sense of mystery and adventure, factors that act as links between fantasy, reality and acts as a link to the past, factors, which evoke spontaneous feelings and emotions and one that asserts the identity of the people.

Meier’s versatility in design is not just limited to architectural sensibilities, his distinctive clarity is also asserted in his sculptures, collages, drawings, photographs, furniture and product designs as well. There are no boundaries to his ingenuity and creativity. Most of his sculptures and collages are made from paper cuttings and tickets collected from his extensive travels. His collection of ceramics, glassware, silver articles and furniture have become iconic designs. His minimalist, traditional approach to building intertwines beautiful simplicity, expresses and explores pivotal moments in time.

He remains the youngest recipient of the illustrious Pritzker Prize, which he received in 1984. Among his greater works, the prestigious commission to design the $ 1 billion Getty Centre in Los Angeles stands out for its sheer brilliance and magnitude. Meier has ignored changing fashion trends, persisting with his own design philosophy. In a career spanning over four decades, Meier has developed his own distinctive and dynamic style to become one of world’s most influential and revered architects. Currently, Richard Meier & Partner Architects LLP is planning their maiden venture in India, in association with Ganti+Associates.


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Videos



  • “I believe architecture has the power to inspire, to elevate the spirit, to feed both the mind and the body. It is for me the mot public of arts.”
  • “White is the most wonderful colour because within it you can see all the colours of the rainbow. The whiteness of white is never just; it is always transformed by light and that which is changing; the sky, the clouds, the sun and the moon.”
  • “When I am asked what I believe in, I say that I believe in architecture. Architecture is the mother of all arts. I like to believe that architecture connects the present with the past and the tangible with the intangible.”
  • “Openness and clarity are characteristics that represent American architecture at its best, and they are the principles, which I hope to bring to every design endeavour.”
  • “When I think of a place of worship, I think of a place where one can sit and be reminded of all the things that are important outside our individual lives. To express spirituality, the architect has to think of the original material of architecture, space and light.”
  • “Any work of architecture that has with it some discussion, some polemic, I think is good. It shows that people are interested, people are involved.”
  • "Places are goals or foci where we experience the meaningful events of our existence, but there are also points of departure from which we orient ourselves and take possession of the environment. A place is something that evokes a notion of permanence and stability in us."

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