Designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier, the 556-unit building, 685 First Avenue, is going up just south of the United Nations headquarters on the westernmost lot of the long-dormant site, which stretches along the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive from 35th Street to 41st Street. It will be the first building that Mr. Meier, known for his Modernist style and white aesthetic, has designed in black. — The New York Times

But an old friend, and a special commission, have gotten the architect to change his stripes. Mr. Meier has designed a black building.

At East 39th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan, developer Sheldon Solow will be unveiling a 42-story, 556-unit residential building. It will be Mr. Meier’s tallest in the city and his first since his trio of apartment towers on West Street were completed in 2004. — The Wall Street Journal

Ambition or talent: which matters more to success?
I think it’s probably ambition, because if you have talent without ambition, the talent goes to waste. But if you have talent and want to do something with it, you follow your intuition. — Financial Times

Until recently, though, Mr. Meier had never broken ground in South Korea. He checked that off his list with the newly opened Seamarq Hotel, a towering white complex overlooking the East Sea in the city of Gang-neung. “Our client chose a really magnificent site,” Mr. Meier said from his New York office. — The Wall Street Journal

The biggest names impacting New York’s skyline come together to discuss the projects that now epitomize the city, the ever-evolving real estate market and what’s next for New York’s neighborhoods. — 92Y

In keeping with the Chicago Architecture Biennial theme “The State of the Art of Architecture”, Richard Meier’s architectural projects, exhibited at the MANA Contemporary, underscore the consistency of a language pursued over many years of intense architectural activity. — DOMUS

The project, estimated at 400 million euros, or $433 million, features designs by the architects Eva Jiricna, Richard Meier and John Pawson, in addition to the 10 emerging firms, three of which are Czech and seven that are British. — The New York Times

It’s one of the first Mexican projects for award-winning architect Richard Meier, who is known for his white geometric design such as the Getty Center in Los Angeles — CNN

Pritzker winner Richard Meier, who runs his firm from the same New York office he's called home since 1985, has a habit of looking back. "Clients keep the buildings," he says, "but I keep the models." In fact, a warehouse space in Jersey City, where a simulated city of brown building models showcases decades of his designs in miniature, has become a favorite retreat. — Curbed

A new exhibition on the work of New York-based Richard Meier & Partners Architects is set to open at the Ulm Stadthaus Exhibition and Assembly Building in Ulm, Germany on 8 July. — Wallpaper Magazine

Far from reducing his workload or resting on his considerable laurels, the 80-year-old Meier and his partners are also wrapping up construction on several other projects, including the HH Resort and Spa in Gangneung, South Korea; the Leblon office building in Rio de Janeiro; the 140-unit Rothschild Tower in Tel Aviv; the Cittadella Bridge in Alessandria, Italy; and Teachers Village, a mixed-use development in Newark, New Jersey. — The Real Deal

When construction’s done in 2016, Teachers Village will consist of eight, low-rise buildings housing three charter schools and a daycare facility, 65,000 square feet of retail, and 205 residential units designed by the world-renowned Richard Meier, Newark’s native son and architect of the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art in Spain. — Politico

This would be the first U.S. tower for Snøhetta, founded in Norway but on the rise in the United States since being selected in 2004 to design the pavilion for the National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum.

Snøhetta will replace an even better-known architect for the corner: Richard Meier, the Pritzker Prize-winning designer of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, whose firm has been working on a tower in the same location since 2008. —

The first job I had after graduating from architecture school was in the office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. And I worked under the head person, Gordon Bunshaft, who was terrific. And, after I was there for six months, I was offered a position in the office of Marcel Breuer. So, I went and told Mr. Bunshaft, “I'm sorry that I've only been here a short time…” but I wanted to work in Breuer's office because it was smaller and more of the kind of office I had one day hoped to have for myself. — Esquire Magazine

But building the $2.25 million steel-and-glass structure he had in mind presented a number of challenges on Fire Island.

For starters, they had to dig 10 feet below sea level to bury the wood piles. Then they had to put a steel frame on top that could support 25 tons of glass.

Sam Wood, the contractor, had been working on Fire Island for 30 years and had never seen anything like it. “It’s built like a mini-skyscraper,” he said. — nytimes.com