Richard Meier & Partners Architects Restructures as Meier Partners
Dukho Yeon, AIA, Principal, Is Named Partner and Lead Designer
George H. Miller, FAIA, Is Announced as Partner and Chief Operating Officer
Ana Meier Continues to Advise the Firm and Will Spearhead a New Research Initiative
Michael Palladino, FAIA, Establishes an Independent Firm,
STUDIOpractice, in Los Angeles
Pritzker Price Laureate Richard Meier Has Retired from the
Firm He Founded in 1963
NEW YORK, NY, June 23, 2021 – Signaling an important new phase in the evolution of one of the world’s best-known architecture firms, Richard Meier & Partners Architects today announced a new name – Meier Partners – and a new leadership structure.
Dukho Yeon, AIA, who has 30 years of distinguished work at the firm, has been named a Partner and Lead Designer of Meier Partners. George H. Miller, FAIA, the former managing partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, has been announced as Partner and Chief Operating Officer.
Richard Meier, FAIA, FRIBA, who founded Richard Meier & Partners Architects in New York in 1963, has retired from the firm. Over nearly six decades, he nurtured its growth from a one-man studio into a globally renowned office with more than 130 buildings completed on four continents. He will be available for consultation by clients upon request.
As leaders of Meier Partners, Yeon and Miller will expand on the firm’s rich legacy of more than half a century of visionary design. They remain committed to creating uplifting architecture, distinguished by the features that have long been the hallmark of the practice: an emphasis on lyrical composition, a passion for exquisite materiality, and a reverence for natural light. Each Meier Partners building will continue to engage in an eloquent dialogue with its surroundings, striving for a positive social and environmental impact on the community in which it is built.
Ana Meier will continue to serve as an advisor to Meier Partners and will spearhead a new research initiative in collaboration with Dukho Yeon. The signature initiative will evaluate the effects of daylight on health and emotion, beginning with an analysis of Meier spaces. Meier Partners believes that natural light is not only critical to good design but is deeply connected to health and vitality. This initiative is undertaken to inspire a larger conversation about the importance of light. Building on the firm’s longstanding belief that its buildings should be good citizens of the communities in which they are constructed, this initiative will be guided by Meier Partners’ commitment to making a meaningful contribution to the future of its field.
Along with the restructuring of the New York firm, the Los Angeles office of Richard Meier & Partners will now become an independent firm named STUDIOpractice. The new firm will be led by Michael Palladino, FAIA, and Jim Crawford, who helmed Richard Meier’s Los Angeles office for 25 years. Palladino will continue to collaborate with Meier Partners on select projects as a consulting partner.
The restructured Meier Partners is staffed by a diverse team of talented employees with an unmatched range of experience, positioned to offer comprehensive design services—from urban planning and architecture to interior and product design—to clients anywhere in the world. The firm has projects recently completed and currently on the boards in South America, Europe, Asia, and across the United States, including 685 First Avenue and 1 Waterline Square in New York City; a corporate headquarters tower in Seoul; a resort master plan in Marbella, Spain, with hotels, condominiums, townhouses, and villas; residential buildings in Jesolo, Italy; and Solol Museum for Modern Art in Gangneung, Korea.
Meier Partners’ intensely collaborative, studio-driven approach will benefit from the depth of experience and leadership skills of core team members Stefan Scheiber-Loeis, Guillermo Murcia, Hans Put, David Davila, and Sharon Oh. The young and vibrant studio is uniquely poised to combine a passion for craft and a deep knowledge of tradition with cutting-edge expertise in new building technologies and materials science, creating designs that elevate and inspire.
George Miller said, “It is an honor to have the opportunity to help lead this legendary firm. Meier Partners stands for a design ethic that remains as vital as ever, realized today by a diverse, energetic, and extraordinarily talented staff of professionals who are enthusiastic about applying the firm’s deep base of knowledge to forward-looking purposes. I am excited to see the remarkable work being done under a vanguard of designers led by Dukho Yeon.”
Dukho Yeon said, “The future we envision at Meier Partners will build on our proven record of exceptional architecture to create work that is both relevant for our time and meaningful to society. We are committed to creating studio-crafted designs that become immersive architectural experiences that bring back optimism and inspiration, especially after the past year of global challenges. Our talented and fast-growing, reinvigorated team is working on a new generation of projects that I am confident will evolve our legacy and redefine the firm and the industry as we move forward.”
Michael Palladino said, “Over the last two decades, our Los Angeles studio has designed a broad range of buildings in the United States and overseas. Along with state-of-the-art drawing, modeling, and rendering tools, our team relies heavily on sketches and hand-crafted models to communicate our vision through all phases of the design. The name change to STUDIOpractice represents a way of working and is an acknowledgment of our dedicated team of architects and designers, who have worked together for years with a shared vision for inspiring architecture. We look forward to continuing the relationship with our colleagues in New York through targeted opportunities and collaborations.”
About George H. Miller
Chief Operating Officer George H. Miller has played a leading role in the field of architecture both through his contributions to the practice of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and through his extensive institutional service. In 2011, he received the James William Kideney Gold Medal, the highest award that AIA New York State can bestow on one of its members. He is a former president of the American Institute of Architects, former president of the New York Chapter of AIA, and a former member of the AIA New York State Board and its executive committee. He has also served as a trustee of the New York Foundation for Architecture and a director of the New York Building Congress and is a member of the Architectural League of New York and the Municipal Art Society. He currently serves on the New York State Licensing Board and chairs Region 2 of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.
About Dukho Yeon
Lead Designer Dukho Yeon’s contributions to the firm’s creative portfolio span the globe. They include 685 First Avenue residential tower in New York City; Parkview office building in Prague; JEI commercial building in Seoul; Vitrum residential tower in Bogota; Seamarq Hotel in Gangneung; Italcementi i.lab in Bergamo; Cittadella Bridge in Alessandria; OCT Clubhouse in Shenzhen; SoMa Master Plan and Teachers Village in Newark; Pankrac Master Plan, City Tower, City Point, and City Green Court projects in Prague; Canon Headquarters and Harumi Towers in Tokyo; and the Jubilee Church in Rome. He is currently overseeing two large-scale hospitality master plan projects in Spain and Italy, the Solol Museum project in Gangneung, and a corporate office tower in Seoul. A graduate of Cornell University (Bachelor of Architecture) and Harvard University (Master of Architecture), he has lectured widely on the firm’s design philosophy and has served as a visiting critic and juror at Cornell University, Columbia University, Harvard University, and the City College of New York.
About Michael Palladino
Michael Palladino became a Principal Designer of Richard Meier & Partners in 1979, was appointed Partner in 1985, and moved to Los Angeles in 1986 to establish the firm’s West Coast office and support the Getty Center project. Among his recently completed award-winning commissions are the Edie and Lew Wasserman Building at UCLA, the United States Courthouse in San Diego, the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, and the UCLA Broad Art Center. Designs in development include the new Santa Rosa Courthouse in Sonoma County, California, a three-acre park and cultural center in Fort Lauderdale, and private residences in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Educated at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Bachelor of Architecture) and Harvard Graduate School of Design (Master of Architecture), he has served as guest critic at architecture schools throughout the U.S. A recipient of the prestigious Rome Prize (2000–2001) and the 2005 Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles, Michael Palladino was elevated to Fellowship in the AIA in 2008.
About Richard Meier
Richard Meier established his architectural practice in 1963. Only a few years later, at the age of thirty-one, he designed the Smith House in Darien, Connecticut, a project that simultaneously launched his career and redefined modern architecture for a new era. The Smith House won critical acclaim immediately upon its completion in 1967, and its enduring influence on the course of American architecture was recognized with the 25 Year Award from the AIA in the year 2000. Meier has continued to design iconic residences throughout his career—including private homes, condominiums, and apartment towers around the globe—and Meier-designed residences remain some of the most sought-after in the world. Yet Meier’s extraordinary influence over the long arc of his career is also due to the ease and grace with which he has transitioned between domestic architecture and the larger scale of the civic and commercial buildings for which he is equally renowned. Over nearly six decades, he has completed more than 130 projects of all types and sizes around the world, from museums and research laboratories to office towers and master plans. Praised by critics as one of the most gifted compositionalists of his generation, Meier has refined the traditional vocabulary of modern architecture into an extraordinary expression of lightness and grace, which remains grounded in a profound respect for materials, craft, and tradition. Major projects in his iconic style—timeless yet uniquely his own— include The Atheneum in New Harmony, Indiana (1975-79); the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (1980-83); The Hague City Hall and Central Library (1986-95); The Getty Center, Los Angeles (1984-97); Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (1987-95); Canal+ Headquarters, Paris (1988-92); the Frankfurt Museum in Frankfurt, Germany (1989-96); the United States Courthouse, Phoenix, Arizona (1994-2000); the United States Courthouse in Islip, New York (1993-2000); the Jubilee Church in Rome (1996-2003); the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome (1995-2006); the 173-176 Perry Street and 165 Charles Street condominiums in Manhattan (1999-2006); the ARP Museum in Rolandseck, Germany (2002-07); the Cittadella Bridge in Alessandria, Italy (1996-2017); and 685 First Avenue in Manhattan (2015-19). In 1984, Meier was awarded the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, and he has also received the AIA Gold Medal, the Praemium Imperiale, and every other major award in his field, a fitting recognition for the contributions he has made over a lifetime spent in the passionate pursuit of excellence.
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