BUILDING THE GETTY
by Meier, Richard
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Fine/Very Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0375400435
- ISBN 13
- 9780375400438
- Seller
-
Los Angeles, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York, New York, U.S.A. : Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1997. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Fine/Very Fine. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. One of America's most eminent architects tells us what it was like to undertake the architectural commission of the century: the building of the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Writing with wit and passion and in engrossing detail, Richard Meier takes us behind the scenes of the thirteen-year-long, one-billion-dollar project. We follow Meier from 1957 when, just out of Cornell, he traveled to Europe for a grand tour and to seek work with two of his architectural heroes, Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto, and through to his early years in New York with Marcel Breuer. After Meier established his own private practice, we see him designing public housing and the private houses that expressed his distinctive modernist style of pure geometric line, of whiteness, and open spaces flooded with light. We also see him, in time, designing such important art centers as the Museum of Decorative Arts in Frankfurt, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. And then--in 1984--the Getty Center. Meier tells us how he was selected from more than thirty architects, after a lengthy and involved series of interviews, to design the cultural campus on the spectacular 110-acre site overlooking the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The Getty was a new cultural institution, and Meier worked with the program directors to design the buildings that would serve them best. In the beginning, neither he nor the Getty had any idea of the complications in store for them. Each of the Center's six components, including the Getty Museum, had its own set of priorities. Meier faced two important contradictory challenges: the creative and the practical. His task was to design a series of buildings that would stand as architectural masterpieces. But, at the same time, he had to deal with myriad specific demands and limitations imposed not only by his client, but also by the local homeowners, who were alarmed by the specter of a vast complex arising in their midst. As a result, the design process itself was not completed until 1991, when the drawings and large-scale model of the Center were finally unveiled to the press. But Meier's task had scarcely begun. The sheer scale and complexity of the project, and the number of people involved in every decision, continued to mean constant revisions. As construction moved ahead, Meier lived on the site, yet commuted to his New York office to manage ongoing European projects, while in his new office in Los Angeles, the population of architects handling the Getty grew to more than a hundred. Although the Center's design had been agreed on, much negotiation lay ahead before questions of material, color, and landscaping were at last settled. Finally, in 1996, almost half of the Center was ready to be occupied, and Meier could see that the work--carried out by the many architects, engineers, technicians, craftsmen, and builders for thirteen years--was well on its way to being completed. Meier's fascinating book, chronicling the creation of one of the cultural monuments of our time, is a unique record of the art and process of building in this century, and an important contribution to architectural history. Very fine, first edition, first printing in black cloth boards, in very fine, mylar-protected dust jacket. [Not remainder-marked or price-clipped] AB10
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Details
- Bookseller
- Joe Staats, Bookseller (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 024684
- Title
- BUILDING THE GETTY
- Author
- Meier, Richard
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Very Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition 1st Printing
- ISBN 10
- 0375400435
- ISBN 13
- 9780375400438
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York, U.S.A.
- Date Published
- 1997
- Pages
- 204
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall
Terms of Sale
Joe Staats, Bookseller
Books shipped in secure packaging via USPS Media Mail, Priority Mail or Global Priority Mail, upon receipt of payment, unless customer requests another method of delivery. Shipping is within 24 hrs. of receipt of payment for money orders, and after three business days for personal checks. All book jackets are protected in mylar covers from Brodart. Customers have three business days within which to contact us with complaints about merchandise by e-mail. Returns must be approved, in original packaging material, and in the same condition as when shipped. Because we make every effort to have the best possible merchandise in the best condition, to describe it accurately and to package it securely, we will in most cases accept approved returns. Approved returns will be cheerfully refunded, or credit given toward other books. Our aim is to please, and to earn your return business with superior service and prompt delivery.
About the Seller
Joe Staats, Bookseller
Biblio member since 2003
Los Angeles, California
About Joe Staats, Bookseller
Modern Literature, Mysteries, and More!
We specialize in collectible, contemporary signed first editions. First edition means the first printing. (Later printings of the first edition are typically not printed on acid-free paper, and should be avoided by collectors.) Signatures are obtained by us in person. Inscribed books sold by us may contain a line, a phrase, or a sketch that the author has chosen to add. Our signed books are not dedicated to anybody in particular (not to your grandmother, your Aunt Gladys, your ex-lover or your former cellmate), except in the rare case of a presentation copy from an author to a noteworthy person. All our books are hardcover, unless the book is an Advance Reading Copy, Uncorrected Proof, or PBO. You can expect that the books we send you will be as described, and in a physical condition worthy of the author’s having signed them. We do not sell remainder-marked books, signed or otherwise
We specialize in collectible, contemporary signed first editions. First edition means the first printing. (Later printings of the first edition are typically not printed on acid-free paper, and should be avoided by collectors.) Signatures are obtained by us in person. Inscribed books sold by us may contain a line, a phrase, or a sketch that the author has chosen to add. Our signed books are not dedicated to anybody in particular (not to your grandmother, your Aunt Gladys, your ex-lover or your former cellmate), except in the rare case of a presentation copy from an author to a noteworthy person. All our books are hardcover, unless the book is an Advance Reading Copy, Uncorrected Proof, or PBO. You can expect that the books we send you will be as described, and in a physical condition worthy of the author’s having signed them. We do not sell remainder-marked books, signed or otherwise
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...