New York, January 7th, 2013 – Richard Meier & Partners Architects is pleased to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Richard Meier’s prolific architecture career.

In recognition of his contributions to architecture and in collaboration with very distinguished institutions, Richard Meier & Partners will be organizing several projects and events to honor this very significant anniversary. Currently on display at the Arp Museum Richard Meier: Building as Art is open to the general public, and the exhibition illustrates Meier’s complex design process using prominent buildings and projects from his entire work history.

In addition to the exhibition in Germany, and later in the summer, Richard Meier will be giving a series of lectures in Los Angeles, New York City and in Italy talking about some of the iconic, recent and current projects.

Richard Meier has over the years developed his own distinctive and dynamic style of architecture to become one of America's most influential and widely emulated architects. His work celebrates natural light and space in response to the environs in which it stands, thereby creating sublime spaces of aesthetic illumination and enlightened cultural values.

Michael Palladino, Associate Partner, comments: “As Richard Meier’s partner for twenty-five years, I have been extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to make a contribution to an extraordinary body of work. As the palette of materials has evolved, each design is site-specific and is defined by a commitment to clarity of idea, and to a highly crafted architecture that reflects the technology of our time.”

Richard Meier received his architectural training at Cornell University and established his own office in New York in 1963. His practice has included major civic commissions in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, including courthouses and city halls, museums, corporate headquarters, and housing and private residences. Among his most well-known projects are The Getty Center in Los Angeles; the Jubilee Church in Rome, Italy; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia; Perry and Charles Street Condominiums in New York, New York; the Canal+ Television Headquarters in Paris, France; and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain.

In 1984, Mr. Meier was awarded the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, considered the field’s highest honor. In the same year, he was selected architect for the prestigious commission to design The Getty Center in Los Angeles, which was opened to popular and critical acclaim in December 1997. Among the projects recently completed by Richard Meier & Partners are the Italcementi i.lab in Italy; the OCT Shenzhen Clubhouse; the Arp Museum in Germany; the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome; the Broad Art Center at UCLA; the San Jose City Hall; and the United States Federal Courthouse in San Diego. Projects currently under construction include the Leblon Offices in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; a condominium complex in Jesolo, Italy; a residential tower in Tel Aviv, Israel; two residential towers in Taiwan, residential projects in Japan and Singapore, a hotel resort in South Korea; a Master Plan in downtown Newark, New Jersey; and residences in Bodrum, Turkey.

In 1997, Richard Meier received the AIA Gold Medal, the highest award from the American Institute of Architects, and, in the same year, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japanese government in recognition of lifetime achievement in the arts. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the American Institute of Architects, and he received a Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the AIA in 1980 and a Gold Medal from the Los Angeles Chapter in 1998. His numerous awards include thirty National AIA Honor Awards and over fifty regional AIA Design Awards. In 1989, Richard Meier received the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1992, the French Government honored him as a Commander of Arts and Letters, and in 1995 he was elected Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the American Academy in Rome and the American Academy of Arts and Letters from which he received the Gold Medal for Architecture in 2008. He has received honorary degrees from the University of Naples, New Jersey Institute of Technology, The New School for Social Research, Pratt Institute, the University of Bucharest, and North Carolina State University.

Richard Meier comments:
“To be an architect has been a life-long dream. Little did I know when asked at the age of 14 “what do you want to do when you grow up?” I said I wanted to be an architect. After 50 years I am still learning all what that means. Working together with so many people has been enormously gratifying. Being an architect means being a member of a fantastic team.”