Richard Meier - Modernist in White Armour

[Zephyr]

Richard Meier's
Addition to
Frankfurt Museum of Decorative Art

Interior Views 2 of 2


More Display Areas
including a transport pathway




Wikipedia / dontworry


Ramps to Floors and Exhibits


left - Courtesy flickr / Gabó © All rights reserved;
right - Courtesy flickr / MARCITECT © All rights reserved


Wikipedia / dontworry


Courtesy flickr / Gabó © All rights reserved

[Zephyr]

Richard Meier & Partners

Museum of the
Frieder Burda Collection

Baden-Baden, Germany

“Meier’s sparse white cubes represent a type of sacred space where art will be revered in the tradition of the first, early 19th century museums.”
Victoria Newhouse

Photo: Klaus Frahm

The new museum for the Frieder Burda Collection in Baden-Baden is designed to be in harmony with the surrounding Lichtentaler Allee Park and to compliment the adjacent Kunsthalle.

The overall size and proportions of the aluminum and glass new building are in scale with the Neoclassical Kunsthalle; creating a sense of unity while each institution maintains its own unique identity.

Photo: Klaus Frahm

Nestled amongst the majestic trees of the park the building is intertwined with the park and the surrounding neighborhood via existing and new pathways. To the south, a gently sloping grassy area flanks the lower floor exhibition area, enhancing the museum's connection to the existing natural surroundings.

Photo: Klaus Frahm

A reflecting water pool embraces the building on the south and east further enhancing the museum’s connection to the existing natural surroundings.

Photo: Klaus Frahm

The museum’s main gallery, covered with skylights, is accessed from the ramp hall via a bridge that allows for views back to the surrounding park or to the lower level.

Photo: Klaus Frahm

The skylights are louvered to control the amount of light entering the gallery space throughout the day while the recessed floor plate brings natural light down into the lower levels.

Photo: Klaus Frahm

All of the elements of the new building for the Frieder Burda Collection work together to embrace and respect the historic trees, the park and the Kunsthalle.

Model photo: Pavel Stecha

Drawing Courtesy Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP
Site Plan

Drawing Courtesy Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP
Ground Floor Plan

Drawing Courtesy Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP
East Elevation

Total area: 2,000 square meters (21,500 square feet)
Exhibition area: 1,000 square meters (10,750 square feet)

Completed: 2004

Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP

• Project: Burda Collection; Baden-Baden, Germany
• Client: Stifung Frieder Burda
• Principal in Charge: Richard Meier, FAIA, FRIBA
• Design Partner: Bernhard Karpf, AIA
• Project Architect: Stefan Scheiber
• Collaborators: David Robins, James Luhur, Sudipto Ghosh, Annie Lo, Anne Strüwing

• Associate Architect: Peter W. Kruse, Freier Architekt
• Structural Engineer: Schumer + Kienzle
• Geotechnical Engineer: Geyer-Hettler-Joswig
• Mechanical Engineer: Schneider, Ebinger, Früh Ingenieurgesellschaft
• Electrical Engineer: b.i.g. Bechtold Ingenieurgesellschaft
• Façade Consultant: Lothar Rudolph, Berater f. Fassadentechnik
• Lighting Consultant: Zumtobel Staff
• Acoustic Consultant: Müller BBM Munich
• Landscape Architect: Bernd Weigel
• Project Management: Heinz Lehmann, Ingenieurbüro für Bauwesen

March 21, 2005


Copyright 1999 - 2008 arcspace all rights reserved.

[Zephyr]

Museum of the
Frieder Burda Collection

Online Version of
Newspaper Review

In small, wealthy Baden-Baden, a fashionable Black Forest resort about 85 miles south of Frankfurt, Meier was asked, in a sense, to repeat his Frankfurt success.

Here, too, Meier's job was to build a modern building for art that would complement both an existing historic landmark, the Baden-Baden State Art Gallery, and a historic setting - the Lichtentaler Boulevard, a treasured, tree-lined pedestrian pathway through the town's principal park.

And here, too, he succeeded brilliantly.

Windows of Opportunity at A German Museum


By Benjamin Forgey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 13, 2005; Page N04


BADEN-BADEN, Germany

Nothing's perfect, says the adage, and it's always something to keep in mind when the subject is architecture. Aesthetics may be paramount in the mind of an architect, but everyday practicalities often stand in the way of the very idea of perfection.

Be that as it may, the new museum on a park lane in this famous spa town comes as close to perfect as I can imagine a building to be.

It was designed by American architect Richard Meier, who clearly has commanded larger and more prestigious projects in a career spanning more than 40 years. One has to think only of the extraordinary Getty Center crowning that big hill in Los Angeles, or of the two federal courthouses completed at the turn of the millennium, one in Long Island, the other in Phoenix, or -- well, the list is long.

But this new building is different. Modest in size and appealing in scale, it is quintessential Meier, a condensation of his complex architectural vocabulary into an intensely beautiful pavilion in a park. Visiting it makes one appreciate (again) how stubbornly consistent Meier has been over the past four decades about the means and ends of architecture -- and how stupendously good he can be.

The building was designed to provide a public home for a notable private collection of post-World War II paintings and sculpture assembled over three decades by Frieder Burda, a scion of a well-known publishing family. Burda, a Baden-Baden resident, created a foundation to pay for the building, at a cost of about 20 million euros (about $26 million today).

Meier's Baden-Baden building is attached via an elegant, transparent foot bridge to a 1911 temple-type visual arts hall that, with its severe detailing and Jugendstil overtones, was somewhat modern for its time. This direct connection to an older, existing building is one of several important similarities between the Burda building and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Frankfurt, Meier's first commission in Germany.

Conceived in 1979 and completed in 1984, the Frankfurt project was critical to Meier's career in more ways than one. Up until then the New York architect's considerable reputation for innovation -- and also for a certain aesthetic hauteur -- was based largely on his stunning, widely published designs for private residences in the American exurbs.

After the Frankfurt job, Meier's projects got bigger, more complicated and more prominent. More often than not, they tended to be public rather than private. The American architect was well on his way to becoming one of the premier civic architects of the age. In the 1980s alone he received commissions for five museums in Europe and the United States.

However, probably the most important thing at the time about Meier's Frankfurt building, which became famous in architectural circles well before its completion, was that it proved just how well an unflinching modernist such as he could build in a traditional urban context. This was a huge issue back then.

Modern architecture had been under justifiable attack for a couple of decades because, among other sins, its approach to the traditional city often was both disdainful and destructive. Yet while many of his contemporaries were abandoning modernist abstraction for ironic references to tradition or even straightforwardly old-fashioned work, Meier kept the faith.

Thus, the Frankfurt decorative arts museum was an uncompromising statement that tradition and the ultra-new could live happily side by side. Meier's task was to quadruple the museum's size and at the same time be respectful of the original 19th-century villa that housed the collection. It seemed an almost impossible job, but Meier pulled it off with amazing grace.

Standing on a hill above the Main River, the villa was surrounded by parklike grounds. By dividing the addition into three separate pavilions and paying careful attention to the scale and details of the old mansion, Meier converted the isolated villa into part of an attractive, cohesive group. And by integrating the grounds shrewdly into the overall composition he converted what had been mainly a private domain into a public amenity linking nearby neighborhoods to the riverside.

The crisp sophistication of Meier's accomplishment contributed greatly to the ultimate success of Frankfurt's plan for a Museumsuefer - a row of museums along the southeast bank of the Main. Since the completion of the Frankfurt museum in 1985 Meier has designed at least a dozen buildings in Germany, including a daring 1993 arts hall that stands with self-confident modesty near the towering late Gothic cathedral in Ulm's town square. (Not incidentally, Meier also redesigned the square.)

In small, wealthy Baden-Baden, a fashionable Black Forest resort about 85 miles south of Frankfurt, Meier was asked, in a sense, to repeat his Frankfurt success. Here, too, Meier's job was to build a modern building for art that would complement both an existing historic landmark, the Baden-Baden State Art Gallery, and a historic setting -- the Lichtentaler Boulevard, a treasured, tree-lined pedestrian pathway through the town's principal park.

And here, too, he succeeded brilliantly. The new building complements its neighbor by keeping a certain distance (crossed by the lovely glass bridge) and by maintaining the basic shape and scale -- both are about the same height and are fundamentally cubical in form.

But no two jobs are exactly the same. The relative simplicity of the Baden-Baden commission for a single, rather small and almost free-standing building allows us to focus without any distraction on fundamental things that Meier has done throughout his long career.

From early on, Meier has been an architect for whom walls and windows -- or, more precisely, abstract planes and openings -- are supremely important as expressive devices. In classic modernist fashion Meier frees the wall from its traditional function of structural support and scatters "windows" of all sizes on roofs, ceilings, floors and "walls."

The purpose of these sophisticated manipulations, Meier has often told us, is to shape interesting spaces and control the widest possible variations in natural light. Meier's famous fixation on whiteness is in large part a function of his love of light because white, he strongly feels, best reflects changes in conditions of light, be they as subtle as a passing cloud or as emphatic as a pattern of dark shadows.

But none of Meier's buildings can properly be understood without crediting the architect's near obsession with movement -- the way light and shadows change and, above all, the way human beings move around, up, down and through the buildings. This helps to explain, for instance, the architect's frequent use of ramps because, on ramps, you have plenty of time to appreciate the spaces and changes you are passing through.

All of these Meier qualities are exemplified at their best in the Burda Collection building. Its front elevation gives a visitor some idea of what's in store. It is a finely balanced asymmetrical arrangement of white planes and differently shaped, very large glass openings, with here and there a strategic narrow band of glass. Surrounded by high deciduous trees and green grass, the white building stands out gorgeously -- a human-made jewel in a forest.

The floor plans could hardly be simpler. On each of three above-ground levels there are three parallel sections -- a relatively narrow space for entry and, on the mezzanine and uppermost floor, for rather intimate galleries; another narrow space for primary circulation (ramps, of course); and, finally, a space for two wide, long, high-ceilinged exhibition galleries.

Though the plan is simple, the experience of the building is complex and intensely pleasurable. As spaces to display a few sculptures and a lot of large paintings (including a selection of American abstract expressionists and an outpouring of important German art of the past 40 years or so), the large galleries are excellent.

Yet they are not the vast, neutral, enclosed spaces that many curators (and artists) prefer. Rather, they are quietly active spaces, subtly enlivened by occasional changes -- a pedestrian bridge here, a hidden window there, and so on. The overhead lighting system, too, is ingenious, and lets a visitor marvel at the ever-changing quality of natural light.

What's really marvelous about the architecture, though, is the experience of moving through it, stopping from time to time to contemplate a painting or a sculpture or to appreciate a view into the trees outside or simply to admire a particular effect of the architecture itself. Despite its openness and generous scale, the building has something of the intimacy of the small art places aficionados love to love, such as the Phillips or Frick Collections.

And yet in its melding of the experiences of nature, art and architecture, it is beguilingly unique.


© 2005 The Washington Post Company

[Zephyr]

Museum of the
Frieder Burda Collection

Meier’s Press Release

The highest achievements of Modernism reflect a rigorous idealism an exploration of the principles of architecture.

Modernist painting unveiled the nature of painting itself …

[Modernist] sculpture revealed the means by which art related to space, much in the way that architecture revealed the means by which light related to space and human scale …

[All] rejected demands their art serve decorative or illustrative or sentimental functions.

Modernism’s revolutionary potential was realized by work that stripped away illusion with rigorous technique.

… The overall form and proportions of the new building correspond to the elevated plinth and entablature of the Neoclassical Kunsthalle, but each institution maintains its own tectonic identity.

- Richard Meier

Richard Meier about the Collection Frieder Burda


Burda Collection Museum
Baden-Baden, Germany, 2001–2004

… The Museum for the Frieder Burda Collection is a modern building of differing form, informally related to a garden of picturesque character; it is a pedestrian friendly place with a special character and human scale.

The new museum for twentieth- and twenty-first-century art has been designed to integrate into the lush landscape of the Lichtentaler Allee Park and, at the same time, to harmonize in scale with the classical profile of the adjacent Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden. Great efforts were taken to preserve as many trees as possible on the site, so that the Frieder Burda Collection would be harmoniously incorporated into the nature surrounding it. The overall form and proportions of the new building correspond to the elevated plinth and entablature of the Neoclassical Kunsthalle, but each institution maintains its own tectonic identity.

Nestled amid the existing majestic trees of the Lichtentaler Park, the new three-story structure is accessed from a main portico facing east to the main footpath thru the park. At the second floor a glazed bridge links the building to the plinth of the Kunsthalle. This bridge has been delicately detailed so as to intrude as little as possible on the character of the existing museum. The Burda Collection is thought of as both an independent museum as well as a fraternal adjunct to the Kunsthalle. Therefore, the resulting building connection, a glass bridge, is like an umbilical cord that can be opened or closed. A lower level exterior courtyard embraces the building on its south elevation, dramatically enhancing the museum’s connection to the surrounding landscape of the serene Lichtentaler Allee.

Upon entry, visitors turn right through a dramatic entrance atrium, the lobby/reception area, to arrive at a spacious transverse four-story ramp hall set on axis with the bridge link to the Kunsthalle one floor above. Together with an adjacent elevator, this primary means of vertical circulation, the ramp, affords access to a second major gallery suspended above the ground-floor gallery and also to auxiliary exhibition spaces on both the lower ground floor and on the mezzanine level overlooking the entry. The grand ramp is historically a feature in a continuous circulation sequence. But I prefer to think of this ramp as an event in itself, more a picturesque and less a sequential element in the spatial whole. I hope that visitors will experience circulation through the building as a succession of minor shocks or jolts; movement through the building tends to be interrupted by stop effects and contra axes when the slope of the ramp ends at the entrance to the galleries.

Light pours into the crisp white rectilinear galleries from glazed walls, which are faced with sunscreens. The main upper exhibition volume accessed by the ramp hall via a bridge, allows for views to the surrounding park and to the lower level. The recessed floor plate of the upper gallery and the bounding walls of lower gallery also enable natural light to penetrate to the lower level. Controlled natural light exists in most of the exhibition spaces, reflecting distinct ideas of how space affects the viewing of art. Louvres on the south faÁade help control the amount of light that enters the gallery spaces throughout the day.

Frieder Burda is a passionate and dedicated collector of contemporary art. His eye and his mind are focused in the most extraordinary manner, so that his love of art and his love of experiencing great works of art are an integral part of his life. His enthusiasm for painting and sculpture is contagious and so it is a great honor for me to work with him to create a work of art, a work of architecture, in which it will be possible to experience art and space in an equal manner and to view his unique collection, which spans the art of the past one hundred years, in a harmonious environment. The richness and the luminosity of the art in the Frieder Burda Collection not complements the works of the brilliant artists represented, but the interconnections and the relationships of conception and their means of expression will be viewed in a new light.

The changing weather of the day, the changing seasons of the year make the daylight in the museum illuminate the art in a manner that can never be achieved by artificial light. Light is the key material that not only illuminates the town of Baden-Baden and the Lichtentaler Allee with a clear translucent quality, but pervades the interior spaces of the Museum as well. This enables the visitor to view the works of art during the day in natural light, like the conditions under which most of the artists created them. The Frieder Burda Collection will be as conceptually and physically radiant as hopefully, the experience of being there will be as well.


Richard Meier

[Zephyr]

Museum of the
Frieder Burda Collection

Exteriors

Richard Meier & Partners’
Museum Frieder Burda
für die Sammlung Frieder Burda
2001 - 2004
Baden-Baden, Deutschland



Overview of Front Entrance


Wikipedia / Fritz Geller-Grimm © All rights reserved.


Courtesy Zumtobel (Lighting Subcontrator)


Wikipedia / Fritz Geller-Grimm © All rights reserved.


Exterior Detail


left - flickr / konsumkind All rights reserved; right - Courtesy Zumtobel (Lighting Subcontrator)


flickr / rab36 All rights reserved.


left - flickr / rab36 All rights reserved; right - flickr / JPGarcia All rights reserved


Sculpture
with Bridge to Staatliche Kunsthalle
in Background


flickr / rab36 All rights reserved.

Reverse Angle on a Rainy Day
overlooking
Lichtentaler Allee Park


flickr / ! reiniha All rights reserved.

[Zephyr]

Museum of the
Frieder Burda Collection

Interiors


Public Areas and Galleries


Wikipedia / Fritz Geller-Grimm © All rights reserved.


Courtesy Zumtobel


flickr / JPGarcia © All rights reserved.


flickr / ! reiniha © All rights reserved.


Wikipedia / Fritz Geller-Grimm © All rights reserved.


Courtesy AIArchitect

[Zephyr]

Richard Meier & Partners

Museum of Television & Radio

Beverly Hills, California USA




Photo courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

The Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills is located prominently at the corner of North Beverly Drive and Little Santa Monica Boulevard. Flooded with natural light and open to the street, this two-story building is the result of the remodeling and rearrangement of an existing structure. Set between two newly glazed planes, one for each public facade, the main volume is highly visible from the sidewalk, and vice versa.

Photo courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

The North Beverly Drive entrance is set back from the property line in order to create a threshold at the entrance, a top-lit cylindrical lobby that is the symbolic center of the museum. The lobby affords access to the gallery, the 150-seat theater, the Radio Studio, and the Listening Room. The information desk, the museum shop, and a multipurpose education room are on the ground floor, off the lobby.

Photo courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

Visitors reach the second floor via a stepped ramp that penetrates the rotunda and overlooks the exhibition space, providing views of the streetscapes beyond. Here the movement system is inseparable from the viewing system and vice-versa, as the stair culminates in the reading room on the second floor.

Photo courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

The less public spaces are located on the third floor: the trustees room and the roof garden with views into the rotunda. Access to this level is by elevator or by a circumferential stair inside this same top-lit space.

Photo: Kirsten Kiser


Drawing courtesy Richard Meier & Partners
left - First Floor Plan; right - Second Floor Plan

• Total Floor Area: 24,000 square feet
• Number of Floors: 2 stories + mezzanine
• Structural System: structural steel frame
• Primary Exterior Finishes: Metal Panels, Travertine, Stucco Primary Interior Finishes: Travertine, natural wood, plaster

Completed: 1996

Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP

• Project: Museum of Television & Radio
• Client: Museum of Television & Radio; 25 West 52nd Street; New York, NY
• Principal in Charge: Richard Meier & Partners
• Design Team: Richard Meier, Michael Palladino
• Project Architect: John Eisler
• Project Architect (Construction): Peter Burns
• Project Team: Amy Donohue, Jeff Greene, Stephen Harris, John Locke, Jun-ya Nakatsugawa, Greg Reaves, Jennifer Stevenson, Bruce Stewart, David Swartz, Carlos Tan, Thomas Vitous
• Structural Engineer: Robert Engelkirk, Inc.
• Mechanical Engineer: Altieri Sebor Wieber
• Lighting Consultant: Fisher Marantz Renfro & Stone, Inc.
• General Contractor: Peck/Jones Construction
• Program: Museum of broadcasting with changing exhibits gallery, theater, library, console and scholars’ room

15 September, 2001


Copyright 1999 - 2008 arcspace all rights reserved

[Zephyr]

Richard Meier & Partners

Ara Pacis Museum

Rome, Italy

The Ara Pacis Museum, located along the Tiber River, near the Ponte Cavour, on the western edge of the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, is an integral part of the urban context of the Augustean Area.

The clarity of the volumes and the building’s proportions relate in scale to Rome’s ancient structures.

Photo courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

The Museum is designed to house the ancient relic, the Ara Pacis Augustae, a sacrificial altar dating to 9 B.C., originally housed in a building designed by Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo in 1938. The only surviving part of the Morpurgo structure is a low travertine wall that Mussolini had engraved with the "Res Gestae" (the Acts of the Divine Augustus).

The new design by Richard Meier protects and enhances the relic.

Photo courtesy Comune di Roma

Building materials include glass and concrete and an indigenous fine beige Roman travertine. The predominant feature is a 13.5 meters high and 50 meters long glass curtain wall.

Photo courtesy Comune di Roma

Photo courtesy Comune di Roma

Photo courtesy Comune di Roma

A reflecting water pool embraces the building on the south and east further enhancing the museum’s connection to the existing natural surroundings.

Photo: Klaus Frahm

The 8.5 meter high Entry Hall, defined by four slender columns in reinforced concrete, finished with white waxed marble plaster, leads to the Main Hall which houses the Ara Pacis.

Photo courtesy Comune di Roma

Photo courtesy Comune di Roma

The entrance space with its subdued lighting, in contrast to the expansive top-lighting in the Great Hall, encourages a natural progression and circulation. Skylights were used to obtain the most natural lighting and to eliminate “false shadows”.

Although housing and protecting the ancient altar was the main focus of this museum, the building also provides 700 square meters space for temporary exhibitions and installations dedicated to archaeological themes, as well as a digital library of Augustan culture with state-of-the-art technology.

An outdoor roof terrace above the auditorium is an essential part of the circulation of the museum. It includes a contiguous bar and café with views over the Mausoleum of Augustus to the east and the Tiber River to the west.

Model photo: Jock Pottle / Esto.

Model photo: Jock Pottle / Esto.

Model photo: Jock Pottle / Esto.

Drawing courtesy Richard Meier & Partners
Site Plan

Model photo: Jock Pottle / Esto.
Drawing courtesy Richard Meier & Partners
Ground Floor Plan

Drawing courtesy Richard Meier & Partners
Long Section

The Ara Pacis Museum is the first work of modern architecture in the Historic Center of Rome since the 1930’s. The altar, which has not been moved from its original location … [was] protected during construction …

Total Floor Area: 4,250 square meters

Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP

• Project: Burda Collection; Baden-Baden, Germany
• Client: Comune di Roma
• Design Team: Richard Meier, John Eisler, Peter Burns, Thibaut Degryse, Simone Giostra, Alfonso D'Onofrio, Matteo Pericoli, Hans Put, Michael Vin

Copyright 1999 - 2008 arcspace all rights reserved.

[Jasonik]

WNY Ara Pacis thread here.

[Zephyr]

.

Thanks for mentioning this, and I don't want it to be misconstrued that I have a problem with existing threads (such as Jubilee Church and Mandeville Place, to add two others), but I was well aware of these threads before embarking on this one. No doubt if you are reading these posts, you will see a different purpose in mind.

I am not just listing Meier's works for visuals only, but exploring what he has done in pulling ideas from one building into another, his collaborations, his influences, and criticisms of his efforts as seen across the broader scope of his career. I have tried to arrange the images in a predictable but also revealing way, and have grouped a number due to thematic unity.

Because of his prolific production, and the gaps in Internet displays, not all should or can be shown. Nevertheless, I have every intention of at least including what I feel are his major works. It helps me to better understand them myself, although I have been an interested observer for years.

My thread on the "White City of the Bauhaus," some time back, tried to look at this matter of a particular brand of Modernist design, from a group perspective. Richard Meier is the face of this idea carried forth into the present, with added sophistication and interesting extentions. Hence his career is as important as his individual works.

.

[Zephyr]

Ara Pacis Musem


The Ara Pacis Augustæ




The entrance to the altar enclosure ...

What is it?

The Ara Pacis, or Altar of Peace, is a Roman sacrificial altar enclosed in a screen of Parian marble beautifully carved in high relief with allegorical and ceremonial scenes ornamented with elegant plant motifs. For a thousand years not a trace of it had been seen, yet today we have all of it once again.

In Augustus's own words, at the beginning of the section of the Res Gestae in which he prides himself on having restored peace to the Roman commonwealth (II.12):

When I returned from Spain and Gaul, in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius, after successful operations in those provinces, the Senate voted in honor of my return the consecration of an altar to Pax Augusta in the Campus Martius, and on this altar it ordered the magistrates and priests and Vestal Virgins to make annual sacrifice.

The Res Gestae Divi Augusti — Augustus' career viewed and written up by him in retrospect at the very end of his life — is an indispensable source for his life. The complete Latin and Greek text of the Res Gestae, with an English translation, is here.

That was in 13 B.C. Augustus's three-year stay in Gaul had been devoted to personally organizing the province: it was to be his last provincial residence. His return marked the essential completion of his great consolidation of Roman authority thruout the Empire.

The Ara Pacis was consecrated in 9 B.C. We even know the exact date, preserved for us in Ovid's Fasti, Book I, 709_722: the 30th of January. ...


The Sculpture

The high-relief sculpture is first-rate: not just mythological scenes, either, but true Roman portraiture applied to the entire imperial family, even if understandably idealized.


A Technical Detail

The Ara Pacis was a working altar. Sacrifices involve the slaughter of large animals, and blood and other fluids have to be washed out of the altar enclosure. Here then are a couple of drainholes.


SOURCE

Courtesy hardav.co.uk

Walking around the Ara Pacis Augustae to the West side, where the entrance was, the young doctor opened his mouth once again, in an attempt to make conversation, much to Musa's despair. As he looked gazed at the alter of peace, Musa could almost feel the waves of enthusiasm and eagerness flowing off him. It was nauseating. "Wow!" cried the young man. "The Ara Pacis Augustae. It’s absolutely beautiful. When was it built? Was it done by Augustus himself then? People come here every year do they? What for?" The young doctor asked all these questions in one excited breath then paused staring at Musa expectantly. Jupiter above! he actually expects me to answer him. Musa gave a mental sigh.

"Uh, it was commissioned by the senate 4th July in 14 years ago. and actually consecrated on the 30th January in 10 years ago." answered the older man slowly. He squinted in the sun, racking his tired brain, for something intelligent to add. "He was returning from Spain and Gaul, where he had been settling matters and trying to make peace since 16 B. C. The Ara Pacis was therefore built to thank the Emperor for his gift of peace." Musa hoped that that was enough information to keep the young man happy. The energy that he had shown at the gates of Janus this morning, showed no signs of diminishing, and further more, seemed to expand with each monument that he saw. “The foundation and dedication are commemorated by sacrifices held here annual. Usually sacrifices are made to Julius Caesar and Pax, occasionally, to other gods." As an afterthought, he added, "Its made of marble".

“Beautiful”, said the younger man again. “Would they have come the way we did?” he asked, walking up to admire it more closely. “Yes. The procession would approach here from the city, along the road we came in from, the Via Flaminia, then it would have circled around the precinct to reach the main entrance.” Musa gestured with his hand, “That’s here. The West side. After the ritual, they would exit towards the city again”. Despite his nausea, Musa could not help but enjoy himself, as he spoke of the history of great Rome. It was undeniably nice, to have such as attentive audience for once. Sliding a glance at the young man, he felt sorry for him, hung-over or not. His youth and innocence was written all over his face, and Musa knew that however enthusiastic and eager he was, he still had a lot to learn. Life was not always easy for a Greek in Rome, especially for an inexperienced young Greek doctor, who had little status in the Roman world.

Walking up to join the young man, Musa could not help but admire the beauty of the alter, or deny the sense of tranquillity and peace that it radiated. Despite the heat in the air, the Luna Marble that the Ara Pacis was made of felt cool to the touch. Feeling a little better, he began to talk the young apprentice through the images shown. “You see, here, on the upper left,” he pointed “that’s the Lupercal.” The young man brightened. "The shrine on the Palatine!" He exclaimed.

“Ah yes! I remember, suckled by the She wolf. Romulus was the great founder of Rome.” Looking at Musa, he said enthusiastically, “I’ve heard the legends. I love legends and stories.”

“Well. Their father, Mars, the god of war, is standing just behind them. And that, on the other side, would be Aeneas, sacrificing the a white sow-”

“That the gods prophesised that he would find under a laurel tree, suckling her young.” The young man interrupted. “Then he was supposed to sacrifice the pig and thus lay the foundations of Rome.”

“You certainly listen to what legend says. But yes, that is correct. Aeneas travels around the world and goes on many adventures, a bit like Odysseus, before the gods finally lead him to Rome. There, behind him is Mars again. Aeneas had the gods on his side constantly. He was a very pious man, never forgot the gods.” Mars, the consort of Venus, ancestor of Augustus, indeed looked like he was on the side of Aeneas, silently approving as the dead Hero carried out his duties. Musa pointed again. “Before we go on, did you notice the bottom half of the frieze? The frieze on top shows the history of Rome, but if you like closely at the bottom, you can see Augustus’s desire for peace etched here.” Musa pointed out the individual parts of the frieze that he was explaining. “There is the repetition of fruit. That represents the forever flowering of Rome, and symbolises the fertility of the Empire. See the details of the birds, the small creatures? Look, there’s even worms in the soil! And look at the swans. Know what they symbolise?” The young doctor shook his head. “Swans, are sacred to the god Apollo, and he is connected to the house of our Emperor.” Leaning towards the young doctor, Musa whispered, “There are rumours that Apollo is Augustus’ real father.” He cleared his throat as the young man gasped. “Swans are also seen as creature of beauty, elegance and above all, peace. Peace, is a very important part of the Emperor’s regime. He prides himself of keeping it, and the favour of the gods.” As the young man peered at the depictions, Musa closed his eyes for a second. The noise and the heat of the crowd came back to him, as he remembered last year’s sacrifice. A huge event, everyone had come to watch the Vestal virgins and the priests perform their duty; to honour the gods, and to remind the public that it was Augustus, that had given them all this to be proud of. The Emperor, who never forgot his father, Julius Caesar, who had now earned a place with the gods above, following his murder in 44 B. C.

“And this side?” The young man’s voice brought Musa back to the present. He had walked over to the east side of the alter. Musa followed him amused, the young seemed to have taken him as the expert. “Ah. That’s Roma, she’s the goddess of war. I suppose you could say that she’s also a personification of Rome. See, she’s sitting down. Rome won’t be going to war anymore, my boy, the goddess is at peace. Her armour won’t be needed so it rests next to her.” He pointed to the other side. “That’s Tellus, mother earth.” He bowed his head as a sign of respect to her image.

Courtesy University of Maine / Photographer Michael Grillo

Ara Pacis Tellus Relief

“Although some believe her to be Venus herself.” Musa, was struggling to provide information here. Although he admired beautiful art, he had never researched any particular building in depth. Most of what he knew, was what he had seen, or heard from his patron and his patron’s friends, while they ‘discussed’ important issues, over wine. Lots of wine, Musa groaned, and mopped his head with the sleeve of his tunic. “Those, uh, those figures, next to her…” He scratched his head “Seasons! That’s what they are! They represent the seasons of peace that are to come. You see the children that are on her lap and the animals at her feet? They represent fertility.” He did not mention that the Emperor was keen to increase the population of Romans, and therefore promoted the idea of a family strongly. “The artwork is so intricate!” Commented the younger man. “Of Course!” laughed Musa, only the best for our Emperor. He also did not mention that building was a way of showing power in Rome. The more you built, the stronger you were. By the late 30’s Augustus Augustus had built many impressionable buildings, if you stood in the Forum, you could look in any direction and be able to see a building that belonged to the Emperor. A massive achievement considering that Rome consisted of brick buildings before he came into power.

“Here, look at the longer sides,” he nudged the young man towards the south side. “Now, this is impressive.” As the young man stared, Musa explained “It’s the Imperial family on a procession.

Courtesy University of Maine / Photographer Michael Grillo

Ara Pacis Imperial Precession

Shows the day that the alter was consecrated.” He pointed. “That’s Augustus with the toga pulled over his head, in the style of a priest. Avery religious man, he is. And those at the front, are his priests and heralds. The figures at the back are all his family.” Musa hoped that the young doctor would not ask who each of the figures were, because he had no idea. Although he could guess the identities of some of the figures, he had heard Patron mention that not all of the figures in the frieze were actually there on the day of Consecration. Not that he was there during the special day. “They must be a very close family,” the young ma said, impressed, that the Emperor was openly showing to the public how much he valued his family. After all, this was a family portrait, almost!”

“Yes, he does” said Musa. He did not add that this was the only piece of art work to show that whole of the Imperial family together to this date. Usually, it was only Augustus that was seen.

“What about the other side?” he asked, walking around.

“Oh, the north side?” Musa thought it was the most boring part of the whole building. “Senators,” he said briefly. Senators on a procession, that’s all” Musa was eager to move on, they had a lot to see, and he wanted to have time to make it to the baths. A nice, long bath, would make him feel better! “Come along now, I’ll show you something that really is impressive.”

As they turned to leave, the young man pointed to the pointed to the northen end of the Campus Martius. “What’s that thing?” he asked.

“That’s the Horologium Augusti, the Sundial. (3) It was erected in 10 B. C., the twentieth year since that conquest of Egypt. You see how the ground is criss-crossed with lines? It works like a calendar, the shadow of the sun moves in a circular motion and falls on the correct time of the year. The are even bronze markings for zodiac signs and the changes of season. The actual indicator of the sundial, called the Obelisk was taken from Egypt. On Augustus’ birthday, the shadow will fall on the doorway of the Ara Pacis. It’s a blessing from Apollo.”

Satisfied with the explanation, the young man cast a final look at it over his shoulder before following Musa towards the Mausoleum, and away from the calming presence of the Ara Pacis.”


From Via Flaminia
(Zephyr: Images were derived from a separate source)

.

[Zephyr]

Ara Pacis Museum
Controversies and Building toward Completion

Rome's new mayor announced … his intention to destroy the museum by Richard Meier that was only completed in 2006. Mayor Gianni Alemanno claimed it isn’t his top priority though. …

The Ara Pacis is a 2,000-year-old classical altar. It was commissioned by Roman Emperor Augustus to commemorate pacification of western provinces - what are now France and Spain. …

The museum was very controversial, partly due to being the first Modern building in the city centre for half a century. It was instigated by the left-wingers in power at the time. Gianni Alemanno is right-wing, the first elected in Rome since the time of Mussolini.

SOURCE

The need to promote the methodology of design interventions and town planning in the historical center of Rome and the responsibility to protect and enhance Rome's cultural and monumental legacy has resulted in a program of reorganization and upgrading of the Augustean area located on the east bank of the Tiber River in close proximity to the Ponte Cavour.

The location of the site has particular characteristics due to its outstanding historical, archeological and architectural values, and requires a process of enhancement and a level of quality that will ensure the approval from the Italian and the international architectural communities, as well as from the general public.

The area will be pedestrianized and the traffic arrangement in all of the zone surrounding the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis will be appropriately modified.

The former building which housed the Ara Pacis, a sacrificial altar dating to 9 B.C., was located on the western edge of the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, between Via Ripetta and the Lungotevere. It was unsatisfactory from an aesthetic, environmental, technical and functional point of view, and will now be replaced by a new museum complex, which will create a fitting and secure housing for the Ara Pacis.

The new museum complex will employ the most up-to-date exhibition techniques and media. It is designed to be permeable and transparent with regard to the urban context of the Augusteo. In additional to the public exhibition areas, there will be a small auditorium, a museum shop, office areas and storage facilities.

The new museum complex of the Ara Pacis will be an integral part of the Master Plan relating it to the urban context of the Augustean Area.

Richard Meier & Partners, Architects LLP

Richard Meier’s
Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae
1995 - 2006
Roma, Italia


Rendering compared to Actual


© Musei in Comune



Courtesy flickr alerick86 © All rights reserved.


Earlier phases of Construction - Aerial View


Courtesy flickr optimieron © All rights reserved.


Near Completion of Construction - Ground Level View

Thoroughfare Side Only


Courtesy flickr Arkfinder © All rights reserved.


Courtesy flickr mafalda59 © All rights reserved.

[Zephyr]

Ara Pacis Museum
Two Sides and a Front Entrance



Approaching and Passing on the Pedestrian Side


Courtesy flickr / evan.chakroff


Courtesy flickr / GPZ


Courtesy flickr Roman65 © All rights reserved.


Courtesy flickr marco_dirimini © All rights reserved.


Courtesy flickr [d.o.c.] © All rights reserved.



Front Entrance


Courtesy flickr / ex novo


Courtesy flickr mafalda59 © All rights reserved.

A glance from the Entrance over to
a Building on the right


Courtesy flickr / zak mc



Approaching and Passing on the Thouroughfare Side


Courtesy flickr / alessandro silipo © All rights reserved.


Courtesy flickr / Lo_So © All rights reserved.

[Zephyr]

Ara Pacis Museum
Interior Views



Visitors await inside Portals
as golden Sunlight filters through


Courtesy flickr / dianavieira © All rights reserved.


Model of Altar


Courtesy flickr / evan.chakroff


Ancient Altar sits at Centre
of Museum


Courtesy flickr / krishna81


Natural and Artificial Light
from Above


Courtesy flickr / evan.chakro


Other Views Outside and Within
the Altar


Courtesy flickr / Lo_So © All rights reserved.


Courtesy flickr / optimieron

[Zephyr]

Ara Pacis Museum
More About the Mayor of Rome

May 1, 2008
New mayor of Rome threatens to scrap "disfiguring" Richard Meier museum

Richard Owen in Rome

The famous American architect Richard Meier has denounced as incredible plans by Rome’s new right-wing mayor to dismantle a state-of-the-art museum designed by Mr Meier that opened just two years ago.

The white marble, glass and steel structure housing the Ara Pacis, an ancient Roman altar with a sculptured frieze on the banks of the Tiber, is regarded by some architectural experts as a masterpiece. Others, however, find it hideous, with some critics dismissing it as being “like a suburban swimming pool or a giant petrol station”. Silvio Berlusconi, whose centre-Right alliance won a sweeping victory in national elections last month, once described it as monstrous.

Gianni Alemanno, a member of the “post-Fascist” Alleanza Nazionale who overturned decades of centre-Left rule in a run-off election on Sunday and Monday, said bluntly that “Meier’s building is a construction to be scrapped”. He added that this was not his” top priority”, leaving the timing of the demolition unclear.

He said the building, sited next to the ruins of the mausoleum of the Emperor Augustus, was “invasive”, a “disfigurement in the heart of Rome” and “an act of intellectual arrogance against the citizens of Rome”. The Ara Pacis, or Altar of Peace, was commissioned by Augustus in 13AD to commemorate his military conquests of Gaul and Spain and the ensuing period of peace, and was previously protected by a Fascist-era structure.

The proposal to knock down the Meier building reflects the Italian Right’s nationalist preference for Italian rather than foreign cultural influences, from architecture to cinema. Mr Alemanno, who has moved fast since his victory to reverse centre-Left policies, dismayed Rome’s glitterati this week by indicating that Hollywood film stars were not as welcome as Italians on the red carpet at Rome’s Film Festival, founded two years ago by Walter Veltroni, now leader of the centre-Left Democratic Party, to rival the Venice Film festival.

“I think we need to promote Italian films rather than Hollywood stars,” he said. The new festival head, the Italian director Pasquale Squitieri, who is married to Claudia Cardinale, said: ”Italian cinema barely exists anymore. So what exactly are we celebrating? Nicole Kidman and Leonardo DiCaprio? The Rome festival has no sense because the best of Italian cinema isn’t even invited”.

Mr Alemanno indicated that the Meier structure would be dismantled and re-erected in the suburbs. He said he was also looking at other constructions carried out in the historic centre under his centre-Left predecessors, Mr Veltroni and Francsco Rutelli.

The Ara Pacis building was commissioned by Mr Rutelli - later Minister of Culture - who also commissioned the award-winning Rome Music Auditorium designed by Renzo Piano which opened in 2002 and is the venue for the Film Festival.

Mr Meier, whose ultra-modern Jubilee Church in a Rome suburb has been widely praised, said he could not believe Mr Alemanno would knock his Ara Pacis building down. “I am told it is the third most visited building in Rome after St Peter’s and the Colosseum” he said.

He said he would travel to Rome from New York to confront Mr Alemanno. “There are some things you have to discuss in person, not on the telephone” he told La Repubblica. He said he would ask Mr Alemanno “what the problem is, what he thinks is wrong.

Maybe we can find a solution together”.

Vittorio Sgarbi, an art critic and former deputy Culture Minister, recently set fire to a model of the Ara Pacis building, declaring it to be “an indecent cesspit by a useless architect”.

Mr Alemanno also promised to swiftly carry out his campaign pledge to tackle illegal immigration and crime in the capital. ”I want a serious plan for city safety so there is a real turnaround,” he said, adding that he would ”rearm, retrain and modernise” the city's police force and put more officers on the beat.


© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd

________________

“People calling me ‘Duce’ makes me laugh. I’m not at all fascist and I think that today the word belongs to the history books. I’ve grown to hate all forms of totalitarianism, whether of the left or of the right.

“I’ve never described myself as fascist, even when I was young, but in the 1970s and 1980s we on the right believed fascism was substantially positive. Now we realise it was totalitarian and generally negative, it has to be condemned.”

Asked whether he still sees anything positive in the fascist legacy, he replied: “What’s historically positive is the process of modernisation – fascism was fundamental to modernising Italy. The regime reclaimed much marshland; it set up the country’s infrastructure.” Mussolini drained the malaria-infested swamps, allowing peasants to work the land.

May 11, 2008
Italy needed fascism, says the new Duce
His rise has prompted fears of a far-right revival, but Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, says he is no bogeyman

John Follain

The new mayor of Rome, a former neo-fascist, has praised Benito Mussolini as an inspired architect who modernised Italy.

The election of Gianni Alemanno, 50, has prompted fears of a fascist revival because he once led the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI). His arrival at the city hall was celebrated by a crowd giving the fascist salute and chanting, “Duce! Duce!” – the title used by Mussolini, who ruled Italy between 1922-43.

Speaking to The Sunday Times in his office overlooking the Forum, Alemanno was at pains to deny in his first interview with a foreign newspaper that he was “a fascist or an ex-fascist or a postfascist”.

Courtesy Alleanza Nazionale – Inserted by Zephyr into Article
and does not appear in either print or online version

Mayor of Rome, Giovanni "Gianni" Alemanno
(born 3 March 1958 in Bari, Italy).

A wiry, energetic figure, he explained: “The left describes me as a bogeyman, a nasty Blackshirt, but that’s a complete lie.

“People calling me ‘Duce’ makes me laugh. I’m not at all fascist and I think that today the word belongs to the history books. I’ve grown to hate all forms of totalitarianism, whether of the left or of the right.

“I’ve never described myself as fascist, even when I was young, but in the 1970s and 1980s we on the right believed fascism was substantially positive. Now we realise it was totalitarian and generally negative, it has to be condemned.”

Asked whether he still sees anything positive in the fascist legacy, he replied: “What’s historically positive is the process of modernisation – fascism was fundamental to modernising Italy. The regime reclaimed much marshland; it set up the country’s infrastructure.” Mussolini drained the malaria-infested swamps, allowing peasants to work the land.

Alemanno praised a district south of Rome, which Mussolini built as a symbol of fascism, calling it an example of “architecture that was part of the modernisation process and gave importance to Italy’s cultural identity”. The EUR district’s monumental style, built for an international exhibition that was abandoned because of the war, was modelled on that of ancient Rome.

Alemanno spoke as Silvio Berlusconi, 71, the media tycoon, was sworn in for a third term as prime minister, heading one of Italy’s most conservative governments since the second world war. Among them is Mara Carfagna, 32, a former television showgirl, who is equal opportunities minister and one four new women ministers.

An officer’s son, Alemanno became politically involved at 13 and later fought street battles with left-wing opponents. He was arrested in 1981 for beating up a student with four other neo-fascists wielding baseball bats; in 1982 for throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Soviet embassy; and in 1989 for trying to block the motorcade of the first President George Bush. Each time he was acquitted.

During the interview, Alemanno came closer than before to saying he was guilty of all three incidents. At first he said they were marginal and he had been acquitted. Questioned about whether he regretted the episodes, however, he answered: “Of course if I had to go through those years again I wouldn’t do those things again, despite the fact there was a civil war going on at the time.”

He pointed to a scar on his upper lip. “One guy threw a punch and split my lip. But far more serious than this scar is the fact that many activist friends of mine were killed by left-wing activists.”

Alemanno went on to become part of the conservative National Alliance party’s most right-wing faction. An MP for 14 years, he served as agriculture minister during Berlusconi’s last term of office without attracting controversy. However, his campaign against Franco Rutelli, the centre-left former mayor, with its emphasis on crime and immigration, prompted accusations that he was playing the race card.

“I realise people may think I’m being harsh, but in Rome we’re living through an emergency; we have to regain total control of the territory,” he said.

“In the south of Italy the problem is the mafia. In Rome the problem is immigration: there’s a large group of desperate people who survive in dodgy ways.”

He wants to expel 20,000 foreign criminals. “We have to put these people on planes home but we need the okay from countries such as Romania, so we’re going to work on that,” he said.

As the interview ended, Alemanno made one last attempt to rid himself of the label that has stuck to him for years: “It would be impossible for a fascist to be elected mayor of Rome. Rome is a city that has solid democratic roots and that respects everyone. The Romans are not mad and neither am I.”


© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.

________________

A Collage on Controversy

Note Graffiti on one Photograph


Courtesy flickr / Martin G. Conde © All rights reserved.