Richard Meier has endowed the chair of the Department of Architecture at Cornell University‘s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP), his alma mater.
Andrea Simitch, associate professor and chair of architecture department who graduated with a B.Arch. in 1979, will be the first to work under the title.
“Architectural pedagogy at Cornell is fundamentally rooted in processes of making, and Richard Meier’s creative process—one that moves freely between art and architecture, drawings and sculpture, collages and models—is one that has deeply informed that pedagogy,” Simitch said in a press release. “His capacity to imagine architecture both as abstract composition and occupiable space is a continuing part of his legacy today at Cornell.”
In addition to the endowed chair, which includes a disbursement for research grants, the architect has donated money towards an associate professorship he established in 2010. Along with his daughter Ana, Meier has also funded a scholarship for women in the M.Arch program.
Way before he founded the firm that bears his name, Meier graduated with a B.Arch. from Cornell in 1956. While Richard Meier & Partners’ work can be seen the world over, he has also designed one building for the school: Weill Hall, a 263,000-square-foot biology building—clad in the architect’s signature white—that debuted in 2008.