Tour Richard Meier's Masterful New Model Museum
Richard Meier, Pritzker Architecture Prize winner and master of light and space, has created a treasure for those who care about drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, and, of course, architecture. The Richard Meier Model Museum, which opened earlier this year at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey, is home to hundreds of models and drawings of some of Meier’s most famous structures, as well as numerous other objects of art and design.
Like many of the great talents who came before him, including Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto, Meier has a unique ability to move from medium to medium while exploring facets of his own artistry. One can enter the museum planning to study a favorite work (or with the desire to pick one), but what resonates when you look at everything—from elaborate models of the Getty Center to a simple sketch of a building façade—is the rigorous and elegant consistency of one man’s vision over the course of a 50-year-plus career.
Located in a former industrial building, Mana Contemporary is filled with dance, music, art, and books. Artist Gary Lichtenstein has a studio here (where silkscreens of Meier’s collages are on display), and Meier’s daughter, furniture designer Ana Meier, has a showroom as well.
Meier’s firm, with offices in Manhattan and Los Angeles, continues to flourish, overseeing major projects around the world. But some of the work the architect is most excited about right now is close to home. A native of New Jersey, Meier is designing affordable housing and charter schools on a very challenging site opposite Newark’s City Hall.
As a pupil of Meier’s, friend of Lichtenstein’s and Ana Meier’s, and Jersey boy myself, I have visited Mana on three occasions and hope to return many times in the future. During a recent tour, I asked Meier why he created the museum. He explained that he wanted to share the work he had done and have a place to contemplate—and, he added, “I have a lot of stuff.”
Richard Meier Model Museum is open by appointment only through Richard Meier and Partners; museum@richardmeierom ____
Join Lee F. Mindel on a tour of the Richard Meier Model Museum .
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