Triangle Modernist Houses

Compiled by George Smart, Jr.                                                          

Born in Newark, Richard Meier studied architecture at Cornell University.  He then tried to join the office of his early idol, the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, but the architect would not hire any American at that time, citing commissions lost to Americans. Meier worked briefly for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and then for Marcel Breuer.  He set up his own office in 1963 and has been an icon of architecture ever since.

In 1997 he received the AIA Gold Medal as well as the Praemium Imperiale from the Japanese Government.  In 1995 he was elected Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1993 he received the Deutscher Architektur Preis and in 1992 the French Government awarded him with the honor of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1989, he received the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects, and in 1984 Richard Meier became the youngest recipient of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture. He received the Medal of Honor from the American Institute of Architects and was named a fellow of the AIA as well as of the Royal Institute of British Architects.  Some of his best-known work includes the prestigious Getty Center in Los Angeles.

1965 to 1968 - The Frederick I. and Carole Smith House, 16 Shennamere Road, Darien CT.  Soon after the house was completed, the Smiths divorced. When Carole later married Herrick Littlefield, Meier was enlisted to expand the house. Completed in 1973, the 300-square-foot addition enlarged the master suite and added closets and support spaces.

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."  Text from Architectural Record, 1968.

1965 - The Jerome Meier House, Essex Falls NJ

1966 - The Dotson House, Ithaca NY

1967 - The Hoffman House

1969 - Saltzman House, East Hampton, NY

1971 to 1973 - The James E. and Jean Douglas House, 3490 South Lakeshore Drive, Harbor Springs, MI.  This really should be called the "General Hitch of Canada" House as Douglas titled it in the name of his company, according to Rod Nunn who worked with Douglas at the time.  Sold in 1981 to J. M. Walstrom.  Sold in 1985 to Penny Beitler.  Sold in 2007 to Michael McCarthy and Marcia Myers.

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.  Description from ArchiAtlas.

1974 - The Stuart R. and Paula Shamberg House, Chappaqua NY.  6.5 acres.  An amazing three kitchens and five bathrooms.  Sold in 1989.  The new owners made significant changes to the property. They expanded the 2,700-square-foot house Meier designed and integrated it with the adjacent cottage. The combined property, which includes a new media/family room, is about 6,700 square feet and includes three kitchens, four bedrooms, five baths, along with 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 90 percent as it was originally designed. However, the current owners replaced the original wood floor with stone and added central air conditioning.  Bottom photo by Ezra Stoller.  For sale in 2004 for $4.9M.

1976 - Maidman House, Sands Point NY

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

1986 - The Westchester House

1989 - The Grotta House

1996 - The Howard Rachofsky House, Dallas TX.

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

2001 - A Santa Barbara House