Presentation On The

Works Of

Richard Maier

Creative architecture must look

forward as well as backward,
deriving from but also extending
history.
-Richard Meier is an American architect born in
Newark, New Jersey 12 October 1934.

- He earned his bachelor of architecture degree from

Cornell University in 1957.

-Meier like many other architects he was follower of

the neo-corbusian theory where Le Corbusier’s villas
have been concrete or cement rendered to look like
concrete, flamboyant forms and double-height spaces.
The villa Savoy can be one good example of this.

-In 1960’s he became associated with architects Peter

Eissenman, Michael Gravel, John Hejduk and Charles
Goath who may share the same interest. They even
published their works in a book ‘Five Architects’ in 1975.
-Meier taught architecture at the Cooper Union for
the Advancement of science and art from 1963 to
1973 and later taught at other prestigious
institutions, Yale, Harvard and Princeton
Universities.

-Making the jump from designing elegant house to

constructing major buildings, he was commissioned to
design larger projects by the mid 1970’s.

-Bronx Developmental Centre, The Athenaeum at

New Harmony, The Hartford Seminary, The High
Museum in Atlanta, The $1 billion Getty Centre in
Los Angeles are few among his big commission
projects.
General Designing Principles
-as an architect and part of a big firm, he
believes the best architecture is achieved
through a process of intensive, ongoing dialog,
collaboration, analysis, editing and application of
instinct and insight.

-that is why he is the owner of aesthetically

pleasing, pragmatically efficient works of
architectural excellence.

-pure beauty, the innovative use of natural light

is more compelling
-The technical and architectural innovation,
their subtle and sympathetic relationship to
their context and the natural environment is
also his major designing principles

-“it has always been our aim to create a brand

of architecture that legendary architect Louis
Kahn once described as the “architecture of
occasion “. This was the aim of Meier and his
partners before they go on their own.
-He always tries to respect the client’s need to be
inspired and engaged.
-Creative architecture must look forward as well as
backward, deriving from but also extending history.
Selected Works Of Richard Meier

Minor Projects

1 Smith House
-amidst the rocks and trees of a one and one-
half acre site

-the spatial organization of this house hinges on

a programmatic separation of public and private
areas.
- private part -the entrance facing land, woods
and road

-public space - where the family meets and

entertains, to the rear and
over looking the water.

-The dramatic view of sea and sky that greets

one upon entering is framed and intensified in
the transparent skin of the rear façade.
2 Douglas House (1973)

-on the step hillside in Harbour Springs,

Michigan.

-the visitors enter the house by a bridge

that leads to the top level of a three-storey
living room, from the first floor of this
dramatic glassed-in space.

-a series of exterior staircases lead down to a

river below.
Bigger Commission Projects
1 The Getty Centre (Getty, J. Paul,
Museum)

-founded in 1953
by the American
oil executive
and financer
Jean Paul
Getty to house
his personal
art collection.
-this is one of the buildings which show Meier’s
volumetric design approaches

the museum consists of

-Arts information rooms in each gallery

-Pavilion that features exhibits, publications

and demonstrations

-Two theatres; the family room, which offers

children the opportunity to play art-related
games

-A book store , restaurants, cafes and a picnic

area
2 Federal Building & United States
Courthouse

-it has always been the one building type that

has sustained the communal and public values
the US Constitution
-The building is designed so as to represent
the three branches of government to maintain
the appropriate physical relationship between
judge , jury and spectators.
-light plays a critical symbolic role in the
reading of this structure, which is enlightened
by reason during the day and by equally radial
glow of artificial light at night.

-the hi-tech character of the atrium stems

from its trussed tubular-steel roof structure,
which is carried on steel columns
-the atrium is furnished with shade trees, pools
and fountains, and extends on its eastern and
western ends into paved plaza.

3 The Church of the year

2000, Rome, Italy
-it was a competition for a church sited on the
periphery of the city of Rome
-Tadoo Ando, Gilnter Behnisch, Santiago
Calatrava, Peter Eisenman, Frank O.Gehry, and
Richard Meier were the six architects invited
to participate in the competition
-the project aims at addressing the need for
welcome from the point of view of the urban
landscape, the sociological condition, and the
pastoral situation.

-this project provided an opportunity to view a

cross-section of the diverse principles at work
in contemporary architecture, and to re-
examine the relationship between religion and
architecture at the present moment.
-the only limitation imposed on the architect
was proposing a space that bespeak welcome,
assembly, and church.
-Otherwise, it is left to the architect’s
imagination and design to realize this meaning
and bring the timeliness of beauty
The winning entry by Meier:
-His design was comprised of Christian
Metaphors. That is the concept of the Trinity
by combining portion of a globe in an
arrangement of three layers.

-Layered geometrical shapes distinguished the

church, which arranges the church and the
community centre.

-The nave is a giant shell filled with light. While

emphasizing the vertical, it creates a sacred
space that warmly enfolds the congregation.
About the building
1 The site

-church and the community centre located on

the southern and northern sides of build able
areas
-a minimal landscape treatment of the park by a
square of trees just south of the hill and a
serpentine path
2 Geometry and symbolism

-the proportional structure of both the church

and the precinct is predicated on a sense of
displaced square and four circles.

-three circles of equal

radiusare the basis of the
three shellsthat, together
in the spire wall,
make up the body of the
nave implying the
Holy Trinity.
-all the arrangement of the volumes and their
integration with the site were to preach the
basic faith of Christianity, Trinity
3 General Approach

-the welcome that the church offers to the

community is through the paved sagrato at the
eastern side of the site.

-rather than fully enclosed

the sagrato with a fence
we have opted for an open
plaza framed by carefully
placed elements
-additional service entries are provided to the
community centre and to the other parts of the
church.
4 Lighting
-the artificial illumination of
the church volume is divided
into three zones
-which emanate mainly
from below, making the
church most intimate in
the evening while
also allowing for very simple,
low cost maintenance.
 Other Big Commission Projects
City Hall, The Hague
The High museum of
Art

Museum of Cotemporary
Art , Barcelona
 “CREATIVE ARCHITECTURE MUST LOOK
FORWARD AS WELL AS BACKWARD,
DERIVING FROM BUT ALSO
EXTENDING HISTORY ”

Prepared and Presented

by
Yohana Eyob