These constructions were also emblematic expressions of a renewed version of the American dream. Naturally, things had changed since 1948: the average American, which MoMA had set out to turn into a client for good architecture, available at a reasonable price, was the citizen of a nation that was emerging from the war and moving toward McCarthyism. Very different were the clients who permitted Meier, with these early experiences, to develop a style that he went on to cultivate tenaciously,suited to the invention of continually varied mises-en-scene of the aspirations that are summed up in the word refinement.

In 1948 the Museum of Modern Art in New York embarked on a program of exhibitions dedicated to contemporary architecture.The idea behind the project was that each year an architect would be invited to build the prototype of a house in the garden of the museum, at that time accessible from the 53rd Street as well as from the museum, "demonstrating how much good living and good design can be purchased for how many dollars."After seeing it, visitors would be able to buy the design and build the house wherever they thought fit. Marcel Breuer was the architect chosen to inaugurate the series of exhibitions. His house (the roof had upside-down pitches; the front was generously glazed; the garden with well-cropped grass was bounded by low walls; the plan was organized around the fireside; the fireplace was built out of rough stone; and the internal surfaces were in wood and white plaster) was a well-made representation of the American dream, in an absolutely domestic key. The house was not, however, bought by a discerning family man: designed as a mirage for the middle class, it was transferred directly from MoMA to the garden of a property of the Rockefellers, in the vicinity of New York.

In 1961, Richard Meier, twenty-seven-years old at the time and with a short curriculum behind him after finishing his training at Cornell University, joined Breuer’s studio, where he worked until 1963. The decision that brought the young architect into the studio of the man who had contributed more than most to shaping the domestic stereotypes of the American postwar dream was neither fortuitous nor devoid of consequences. In fact Lambert House, which Meier had just finished (1962) on Fire Island, New York, was the fruit of a curious mixture of ideas drawn from Breuer himself and from what architects active in California had been experimenting with in various ways.

Shortly afterward, Meier opened his own studio in New York. One of the first projects he drew up was for the competition held for the construction of a monumental fountain on the Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia (the project also bore the signature of Frank Stella and marked the beginning of a partnership that was to continue to this day). From this moment on, Meier’s career developed along enviably straightforward lines.Completing the Saltzman House at East Hampton and working on the ones at Pound Ridge and Old Westbury, again in New York State, between 1967 and 1971, Meier laid the foundations of the success that he was to enjoy in the following years, in the United States and Europe.

 These constructions were also emblematic expressions of a renewed version of the American dream. Naturally, things had changed since 1948: the average American, which MoMA had set out to turn into a client for good architecture, available at a reasonable price, was the citizen of a nation that was emerging from the war and moving toward McCarthyism. Very different were the clients who permitted Meier, with these early experiences, to develop a style that he went on to cultivate tenaciously,suited to the invention of continually varied mises-en-scene of the aspirations that are summed up in the word refinement.

 Meier’s style, whose structure is revealed in the essay by Kenneth Frampton serving as an introduction to this volume, is the result of a procedure similar to the one adopted by Breuer, in the years of his maturity. If Breuer had been successful, it was because he had been able to graft the ingenuous stereotypes of American domesticity onto the worn-out stock of the avantgarde, and Meier has carried out a symmetrical operation. He adapted to totally American structural conceptions, modes of construction and typologies, a language that reduced to a manner what had been produced by the European avant-garde,which he had studied through the distorting lens represented by the historical and methodological popularizations of Colin Rowe.Fruit of a work of continual contamination, Meier’s style has been created by sterilizing the materials that he blends, obsessively cleansing every form of any trace of depravity, assigning to each construction a reassuring, familiar and gratifying appearance, aimed at satisfying, with tried-and-tested professional efficiency, the expectations of the ever broader public that is unified by the cult of sophistication.

Meier’s Style

Francesco Dal Co

Forty Years of Practice

Kenneth Frampton

Works and Projects 1965-2002

28 Smith House, Darien,

Connecticut, 1965-67

On Materiality

Richard Meier

3G Hoffman House, East Hampton,

New York, 1966-67

38 Westbeth Artists’ Housing, Greenwich

Village, New York, 1967-70

40 Saltzman House, East Hampton,

New York, 1967-69

46 Project for a House in Pound Ridge,

New York, 1969

50 House in Old Westbury, New York,

1969-71

54 Twin Parks Northeast Housing, Bronx,

New York, 1969-74

58 Bronx Developmental Center, Bronx,

New York, 1970-77

64 Maidman House, Sands Point,

New York, 1971-76

66 Douglas House, Harbor Springs,

Michigan, 1971-73

74 Branch Office Prototypes for Olivetti,

United States, 1971

76 Project for a Dormitory for the Olivetti

Training Center, Tarrytown, New York, 1971

80 Project for Olivetti Headquarters

Building, Fairfax, Virginia, 1971

82 Shamberg House, Chappaqua,

New York, 1972-74

86 Project for the Cornell University

Undergraduate Housing, Ithaca,

New York, 1974

88 The Atheneum, New Harmony,

Indiana, 1975-79

96 Sarah Campbell Blaffer Pottery Studio,

New Harmony, Indiana, 1975-78

100 New York School Exhibition, State

Museum, Albany, New York, 1977

102 Aye Simon Reading Room,

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,

New York, New York, 1977-78

104 House in Palm Beach, Florida,

1977-78

108 Hartford Seminary, Connecticut,

1978-81

114 Giovannitti House, Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania, 1979-83

120 Museum for Kunsthandwerk,

Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1978-85

128 Project for Somerset Condominiums,

Beverly Hills, California, 1980

130 High Museum of Art, Atlanta,

Georgia, 1980-83

140 Project for Renault Administrative

Headquarters, Boulogne-Billancourt,

France, 1981

144 Project for International

Bauausstellung Housing, Berlin,

Germany, 1982

146 Des Moines Art Center Addition,

Iowa, 1982-85

lS2 Siemens Headquarters Building,

Munich, Germany, 1983-88

160 Competition Project for the Lingotto

Factory Conversion, Turin, Italy, 1983

162 Westchester House, New York,

1984-86

168 Siemens Office and Research Facilities,

Munich, Germany, 1984-90

17o Ackerberg House, Malibu,

California, 1984-86

178 Bridgeport Center, Connecticut,

1984-89

180 Grotta House, Harding Township,

New Jersey, 1985-89

On the Road Again

Richard Meier

192 The Getty Center, Los Angeles,

California, 1985-97

212 Competition Project for the Supreme

Court Building, Jerusalem, Israel, 1986

214 Bicocca Competition Project,

Milan, Italy, 1986

216 Exhibition and Assembly Building,

UIm, Germany, 1986-93

222 City Hall and Central Library,

The Hague, Netherlands, 1989-95

228 Project for the Eye Center

for Oregon Health Sciences University,

Portland, Oregon, 1986

230 Project for Naples, Italy, 1987

232 Competition Project for Santa Monica

Beach Hotel, California, 1987

234 Competition Project for the Madison

Square Garden Site Redevelopment,

New York, New York, 1987

240 Weishaupt Forum, Schwendi,

Germany, 1987-92

246 Royal Dutch Paper Mill Headquarters,

Hilversum, Netherlands, 1987-92

252 Museum of Contemporary Art,

Barcelona, Spain, 1987-95

260 Project for the Cornell University

Alumni and Admissions Center, Ithaca,

New York, 1988

262 Canal+ Headquarters, Paris,

France, 1988-92

268 Espace Pitot Residential Housing,

Montpellier, France, 1988-93

……