Born in Newark, Richard Meier studied architecture at Cornell University. He tried to join the office of Le Corbusier, but the Swiss-French architect wasn't hiring Americans, jealous of so many winning international design awards.   Meier worked briefly for Skidmore Owings & Merrill then for Marcel Breuer. He set up his own office in 1963 and has been an icon of architecture ever since.

Meier's awards are many; these are but a few. In 1984 he became the youngest recipient of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture. In 1989, he received the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1993 he received the Deutscher Architektur Preis, and in 1992 the French Government awarded him the honor of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1995 he was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1997 he received the AIA Gold Medal as well as the Praemium Imperiale from the Japanese Government.  Locally, he was awarded an honorary degree from NCSU in 2005.

Since 2007, visits to Meier's immense collection of architectural models in Long Island City NY (shown below) can be arranged on Fridays by appointment.

1962 - The Saul Lambert House, East Walk, Lonelyville NY, on Fire Island. Sold to Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. The original design (top picture) was a prefab two bedroom house built in just under two weeks by six workmen. The Brooks added a second floor and shingled siding and turned the house into a four bedroom structure, bottom photo.

1965 - The Jerome and Carolyn K. Meier House, 185 Devon Road, Essex Fells NJ.  Meier's clients were "the most rewarding and the most challenging for a young architect: one's own parents."  Won a 1964 Architectural Record Award.  Won a 1965 AIANY Merit award.  Won a 1965 national AIA Award of Merit.    The house has been sold.  Architect Thomas Juul-Hansen did a renovation.  Currently the location for VAMCOM, a marketing/PR firm.

1966 - The Arch and Esther Dotson House, Updike Road, Ithaca NY. 
Built for one of Meier's Cornell professors and his wife.

1966 - The Harold and Beatrice Renfield House Expansion, 125 Pleasant Hill Road, Chester NJ. Interior design by her friend Elaine Lustig Cohen, who recommended Meier to the Renfields.  Starting with a 1930's country house bought in 1960, the house seems to have had several additions, as evidenced by the different rooflines above.   Appeared in Architectural Record December 1968.  She sold it in the late 1980's. 

1967 - The Frederick and Carole Smith House, 16 Shennamere Road, Darien CT.  Soon after the house was completed, the Smiths divorced. Won a AIA National Honor Award in 1968.  Won a 1968 AIA New England Award.  Won a 1968 AIANY Merit Award.  Won a 1968 national AIA Award.  When Carole later married Herrick Littlefield, Meier was enlisted to expand the house. A 300-square-foot addition enlarged the master suite and added closets and support spaces.  Now owned by Chuck Smith.  Was on the market in early 2009. Will be rented during 2010.  Bottom three photos by Jesse Neider.

"The house capitalizes on its dramatic 1.5-acre site. Beyond a dense cluster of evergreens, the land clears and rises to the center of the site, then drops sharply to the rugged shoreline and a small, sandy cove. The spatial organization of the house hinges on the programmatic separation between public and private areas. From the front walkway, visitors approach a mostly opaque white wood facade before crossing a ramp and entering on the house’s second level to discover what Meier calls a "180-degree explosion" of light and space. The living room, dining area, and study embrace the waterfront views, pinwheeling in a three-level enclosure of glass on three sides. The family’s private quarters, meanwhile, are stacked to hug the street-facing facade of the 2,800-square-foot building. Elements that would become Meier signatures are present as well: the pristine white exterior, expanses of plate glass framed by finely proportioned piers and mullions, and minimal interiors creating intersecting volumes. When the Smith House was published as the cover story of Record Houses in May 1968, the editors noted that "design impact is produced by the simplest means, with no frills and a remarkable absence of most current architectural clichés."  Source:  Architectural Record 1968.

1967 - The David and Anita Hoffman House, Georgica and Jericho Road, East Hampton NY.  Commissioned 1966.  A 3000 square foot addition was designed in the mid 1990's by architects Peter Stamberg and Paul Aferiat.

1969 - The Renny B. and Ellin Saltzman House, 20 Spaeth Lane, East Hampton, NY.
Commissioned 1967.  Won an AIANY Merit Award in 1972.  Won a 1971 AIA National First Honor Award.

1969 - House in Pound Ridge NY.  Unbuilt.  Won an AIANY Merit Award in 1973. 

1971 - The Weinstein House, aka the "Old Westbury" house, 73 Bacon Road, Old Westbury NY on Long Island.  Won an AIANY Merit Award in 1971. Won a national AIA Honor Award in 1973.  Sold to Charles Kelman.  Sold to Irwin and Alicia Selinger.  Sold to Thomas P. Murphy, Jr. 

1973 - The James E. and Jean Douglas House, 3490 South Lakeshore Drive, Harbor Springs MI. Won a 1974 AIANY Merit Award.  Won a 1976 National AIA Honor Award.   The house really should be called the "General Hitch of Canada" House as Douglas titled it to his company, according to Rod Nunn who worked with Douglas at the time.  Sold in 1981 to J. M. Walstrom who added carpeting, foil wallpapers, heavy drapes, and early American furniture. Much of the Meier-designed or specified furniture was gone or damaged, and the house, closed during winters, had substantially deteriorated.  Sold in 1985 to Paul and Penny Beitler who did a restoration.  Sold in 2007 to current owners Michael McCarthy and Marcia Myers.

Description from ArchiAtlas: The 5000-square-foot Douglas House is dramatically situated on an isolated site that slopes down to eastern shore of Lake Michigan. So steep is the fall of the land from the road down to the water that the house appears to have been notched into the site, a machined object perched in a natural world.   The entry to the house extends beyond the building envelope. Here, as the sharp downhill grade of the land requires the house to be entered at roof level, it takes the form of a flying bridge that seems to shear off the top of the frontal plane. The east side, facing the road, is the private zone, protected by a taut white membrane pierced by square apertures and horizontal strip windows. The unimpeded flow of space between this wall and the hillside is accentuated by the roof-level bridge, and experienced as an activated void that further seals the private zone from the road.  Once inside the entry vestibule, the view opens to the West, down to both the living and dining levels, and out to a large roof deck overlooking Lake Michigan.

As in Meier's Smith and Hoffman houses, the living-room fireplace is located directly opposite the entry, but in this case it is two stories below. At roof level, its stainless-steel smokestacks act as a foil to the entry and frame the view. Horizontal circulation moves along four open corridors, stacked one above the other behind a screen wall. Internal and external staircases provide vertical passage at the corners. A skylight running nearly the full length of the roof-deck focuses sunlight into the living room, reinforcing the separation between the public and private sectors of the house. The living room virtually hovers in the landscape within three glass walls. The fireplace anchors the room, binding the floor to the lake's horizon as if the water itself were cantilevered from the bricks.  

1974 - The Stuart R. and Paula Shamberg House, aka House in Mount Kisco, 46 Old Roaring Brook, Chappaqua NY.  6.5 acres.  Won an AIANY Merit Award in 1976.  Won a national AIA Honor Award in 1977.  Was a 1977 Architectural Record house.  Sold in 1989 to Geoffrey and Susan Wharton.  As you can see above, the Whartons made significant changes, expanding the original 2,700 sf house and bridging it with the adjacent building. The combined 6700 sf property includes a new media/family room with three kitchens, four bedrooms, five baths, a rectangle-shaped swimming pool, a smaller reflecting pool, a two-car garage, and a separate barn/garage. The Meier portion of the house is as originally designed except for a new stone floor and the addition of central air conditioning.  For sale in 2004 for $4.9M.

1976 - The Richard H. Maidman House, 27 Astor Lane, Sands Point NY.  Commissioned 1971.

1976 - House Prototypes for Concord MA.  Unbuilt.  Photo by Wolfgang Hoyt/ESTO.

1979 - The A. Alfred Taubman Residence, aka the Palm Beach House, 958 North Lake Way, Palm Beach FL.  Commissioned 1977.  Taubman called the house "Camelot."  He sued Meier and the builder, Robert Gottfried, over structural defects.  The suit was settled out of court, mostly in Taubman’s favor.  Sold in 1992 to current owners David and Sandra Mack. Architect Mark Stumer of New York did a 2,329-square-foot, two-story addition in 1995.  Bottom photo by Jeffrey Langlois.  In May 2009, by a 4-1 vote, the Town Council declined to give the house landmark status. 

1984 - The Francis A. "Frank" Giovannitti Residence, 118 Woodland Road, Pittsburgh PA.   At 2200 square feet it is one of Meier's smallest designs. Won an 1985 AIANY Merit Award.  On the same street is the Frank House by Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.  Giovannitti has since sold the house.

1984 - The Helmick House, Cedar Rapids IA.  Unbuilt.

1986 - The Joel and Ann Ehrenkranz Residence, aka the Westchester House,
 151 Keeler, North Salem NY.  Commissioned 1984.  Won an AIA National Award in 1987.  Won a 1990 National AIA Honor Award.

1986 - The Norman and Lisette Ackerberg House, 22466 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu CA. 
Meier did an expansion in 1994 which added another floor.  Commissioned 1984.  Won an AIALA Merit Award in 1991.

1989 - The Louis and Sandra Grotta House, 46 Dixons Mill Road, Green Village, Harding Township NJ.  Commissioned 1984.   Seven acres.  Won a 1985 AIANY Projects Award.  Won a 1990 AIANY Merit Award. 

1996 - The Howard and Cindy Rachofsky House II, 8605 Preston Road, Dallas TX.  Meier designed an 1986 house for the Rachofsky's which was never built.  The couple left in 2005 but their massive art collection remains - now an art museum open to the public by appointment.

1998 - The Klaus Neugebauer House, 3930 Fort Charles Drive, Naples FL.

2000 - The Gilbert Friesen Residence, 770 North Bonhill Road,
Los Angeles CA.  Renovation of a 1953 structure.

2001 - aka The Santa Barbara House, Santa Barbara CA. 
According to the Richard Meier website, it is not yet completed.

2001 - The Eli and Edythe Broad Residence, aka the Southern California Beach House, 21958 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu CA.  Interior design by Rose Tarlow. Commissioned 1999.

2003 - The Santa Ynez House, California.  Commissioned 1999.

2003 - The Tan House, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.

2005 - The Reed Krakoff Residence, aka the Southern Florida House, Southern Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach FL. Unbuilt.  In 2008, Meier filed a land lien for $550,000 for more than $1 million in unpaid design fees.  In 2009, the lot was for sale.

2006 - The Peter Morton Residence, aka Malibu Beach House, 22258 and 22310 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu CA.  A departure for Meier - wood - specifically, teak.  The guest wing is separated from the main house by a courtyard. Including the guest quarters and garage, the house covers more than 7000 square feet.  Photos by Timothy Swope. Commissioned 2003.