"When I am asked what I believe in, I say that I believe in
architecture. Architecture is the mother of the arts. I like to
believe that architecture connects the present with the past and
the tangible with the intangible." - Richard Meier

Famed architect Richard Meier delivered a lecture titled "Notes on Architecture" on Wednesday in the public hall of Gordon Bunshaft's masterpiece 1962 addition to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

Richard Meier, one of the world's leading architects of the  Modernist movement, talked on a lifetime of projects that reflects  his personalized approach to rationalist, academic Modernism.
Meier's work, with its characteristic prominent use of the color  white, builds off Le Corbusier's early architecture like the Villa  Savoye and the Swiss Pavilion. Meier is one of the so-called "New York Five," referring to the group of five New York City Modernist architects (Michael Graves, Peter Eisenman, Charles Gwathmey, Richard Meier, and John Hejduk) whose work appeared in a Museum of Modern Art exhibition organized by Arthur Drexler in 1967.



A packed house at the Albright Knox listened in as Meier shared personal narratives on a lifetime of projects including the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the United States Courthouse in Islip, New York, the Douglas House in Harbor Springs, Michigan, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain. Meier struck a chord with the Buffalo audience in describing his insistence on building the Barcelona project in what was then considered the city's worst neighborhood as an inducement for redevelopment. Who said art and architecture were not powerful instruments of urban regeneration?



Meier quipped with some great lines for the audience. His advice to aspiring architects? "Stay in school." The influence of Frank Lloyd Wright on his work? "I learned from him the extension of space from interior to exterior." His thoughts on preservation? "Historic preservation is like motherhood; you can't be against it!"



Albright-Knox Art Gallery Director Louis Grachos is credited with attracting Meier to speak in Buffalo. Meier's lecture, part of a series of lectures by leading architects staged by the Albright-Knox, confirms Buffalo's enduring role as a setting for the exchange and dissemination of big ideas by some of the world's leading thinkers in architecture, design, and urbanism. Bravo, Grachos, for helping Buffalo experience the unexpected!

If you missed Meier's lecture, don't fret. A podcast is now available here on Archive.org. Special thanks to David Torke for providing these images. Be sure to check out Torke's Flickr set of Meier's lecture here.