ITHACA, N.Y. -- Richard Meier, Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate and recently named designer of Cornell University's future life science technology building, returns to the Cornell campus for his fourth visit as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professor, March 4-7.

Meier will deliver a free public lecture titled "The New Museum" Wednesday, March 6, at 4:45 p.m. in Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall. He will discuss the museums he has designed through his firm, Richard Meier & Partners. These include: The Getty Center (Los Angeles), Museum of Contemporary Art (Barcelona), High Museum of Art (Atlanta) and Museum for Decorative Arts (Frankfurt). No tickets are required for the lecture.

While on campus, Meier will give a master class titled "Mass vs. Surface" for graduate and undergraduate architecture thesis students. The topic will include discussion of the meaning and reinterpretation of the modernist white surface in the work of his architectural firm.

Meier, Cornell Class of '56, received his architectural training at Cornell's Department of Architecture in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. His practice has included housing and private residences, museums, high-tech and medical facilities, commercial buildings and such major civic commissions as courthouses and city halls in the United States, Europe and Asia. Among his other acclaimed designs are: "Canal Plus" Television Headquarters in Paris; the Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn.; the Atheneum in New Harmony, Ind.; and the Bronx Developmental Center in New York City, all of which received National Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects. In 1984, Meier was awarded the Pritzker Prize, the architectural equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professors are appointed for one year to five years and are considered full members of Cornell's faculty. They meet with students and faculty and are in residence on campus for at least two weeks during each year of their appointments. Meier inaugurated the professorship in 2000 when he accepted a five-year term.

For more information about the public lecture, contact Gerri Jones at (607) 255-0832 or gaj1@cornell.edu . For more on Meier, see: http://www.richardmeier.com/ .

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