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Richard Meier - Light and white (25/36)

873 views · Published 30 May 2017 · 2:36 · Indexed 17 October 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology

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Born in 1934, the prominent American architect Richard Meier is best known for the Getty Center in Los Angeles. In all his work he refuses to bend to the trends of modern architecture. He has won many awards including the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, considered the field's highest honor. [Listener: Massimo Vignelli; date recorded: 2004]

TRANSCRIPT: I think I’ve, you know, always been concerned with light. Even that first little apartment I had on 91st Street, I remember two small rooms but what made it great was, I got East light, I was only on the 3rd floor, I got East light and I got South light in the windows and you know, if you live in New York City, light is so important. I mean, just what people want is space and light and you know, having the sunlight coming in and working there during the day as we do here with the South light coming in. I go around opening the blinds. People on the computer don’t like it because they can’t see their screen so well. But I want to see that light come in. It’s so beautiful, the way it changes during the day and the way you see the sun set over the Hudson River. It’s magical, you know, it’s extraordinary. Half the... most of New York City, you don’t see this kind of light over the Hudson unless you’re on the Westside. It’s much better than being on the Eastside though. I’m never up early enough to see the sunrise but it’s not as dramatic as the sunset and I think it’s just this, I’ve always felt this wonderful quality of changing light that we have all around us and every place is different because of the quality of light. You know the quality of light in New York is not the same as the quality of light in Los Angeles, totally different.

[MV] I heard you talking about the white is never the same because of the light.

That’s right, well, you know, the whiteness which we look at. Look at it in this room, at the different, different intonations of white. Look in the office, how the light changes and the colour changes and you appreciate that colour. Colour is all around us. Look at this beautiful pink sweater this young lady is wearing. You know, the whiteness enables you to perceive and appreciate all of the colour that’s around us.  It's the colour of nature, the colour that comes from everything. The buildings don’t have to absorb that colour. They have to reflect that colour. They have to allow us to appreciate so much colour and you paint these walls a dark colour, you lose everything, you know, and it’s like gloom as far as I’m concerned.

[MV] So white is all colours.

White is all colours, right.

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