Customer Reviews

Richard Meier Architect, Vol. 4 (1999-2003)

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I have to agree with the first reviewer. Something about this book just doesn't live up to the excellence of the earlier 3 volumes. Perhaps it's the heavy lineweights of some of the plans and elevations. Or perhaps it is the sudden introduction of dozens of computer renderings which are either too bland or overdone. On one hand they fall short of photorealism, while on the other hand these collages of blazing color/material/fake-looking-people detract from the architectural purity of Meier's work. Sadly the tiny images in the chronology at the back of the book reflect Meier's style better than the projects this book chooses to present.

That said, this book contains the Jubilee church, the two courthouses and a few private houses all of which are Meier at his best and are well documented with drawings and photos. That alone makes this book worth the purchase price. But if you're hoping for a book equal to or better than Vol 1 or 3, prepare to be disappointed.

Meier's has passed his peak after Thomas Phiffer leaving his office and that's cleary illustrated in Vol.4. The 2 courthouse projects are the best among them while those apartments are just cheesy and really get me wonder why he even take those jobs. Yale Univ. project is simply diegrading, almost an intentional offense to one of P.R.'s best.(Is Yale that cheap?) That being said, Jubilee church is one of Meier's best works, which really save my faith in him.

The book is still edited well, except some of plan lineweight is on the heavy side. I highly recommend Vol. 1 & 3, with Vol.3 being simply astonishing.

I've been a fan of Richard Meier design and I collected book 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Modern all white buildings with sometimes a touch of stones facade accent has been my admiration of Richard Meier design including his attention on very fine details.
This book (Richard Meier 4) has not shown the quality of his work and his attention to details.
First of all, some line weight of those drawings are thick or did not have the correct line weight to represent his conceptual ideas.
Then some of those project has a totally different geometry or style as if it was not designed by him.
Perhaps this book has been published without him checking the final layout before printing.

Fortunately, book 5 has shown his quality back , similar to book 1 to 3.

i recommend this book to anyone, especially to the architects, but unfortunately i have to agree with the other reviewers; the first three are really better than this one.
ayse gokbakan,architect-istanbul

Richard Meier ARCHITECT V-4 can be considered as a window accesible to everyone who would like to know one of the world's leading architects and his works from a closer distance.

On the otherhand, Keneth Framptons essay lets us make a fruitfull kickoff before we come face to face with the various projects of Meier presented in a quite explanatory way. Though the texts acommpanying visual metarial is limited with very basic knowledge; drawings project, photographs and 3d presentations -hardly distinguishes from real Photos- are satisfying.

Briefly it can be claimed here that this book is a good source which puts forwards the way a star architect represents his ideas with supportive visual material, however the textual structure which could have provide an access to the design processes is very poor.

Orçun ERSAN
Architect -Turkiye-