Meier, Richard [key], 1934–, American architect, b. Newark, N.J., educated at Cornell. During the 1960s, he was a member of the New York “Five” or “white” architects, a group that emulated the early International style. In such projects as the Smith House in Darien, Conn. (1965–67), Meier paid homage to the villas of Le Corbusier while at the same time carefully integrating his buildings into their natural environments. He has successfully adapted his characteristic design aesthetic to the larger scale of public buildings in such works as the extremely sculptural High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga. (1983). The international and public character of his work is evident in many of his later commissions: the Canal Plus building, Paris (1993); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona (1995); the Paley Center for Media, Beverly Hills (1996); the Getty Center, Brentwood, Calif. (1997), a six-building arts complex often called his masterpiece; the Courthouse and Federal Building, Central Islip, N.Y. (2000); and the “Jubilee” Church, Rome (2003). Meier is also a sculptor and has created works of cast and welded metal.
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