Photo by Timothy Brown | CC BY 2.0
The latest cultural titan besmirched by allegations of sexual harassment sits squarely atop the profession to which I am loosely affiliated as a practicing architect. As a minor pundit in the swirling firmament of cyberspace, I feel constrained, at last, to enter into the fractious arena of sexual politics.
Richard Meier, #45 on Dezeen’s global hot list of architects has been accused of sexual harassment. He is known for his stark white buildings begun when, as a protégée of Phillip Johnson, he was a member of the New York Five, also known as the ‘Whites’, long, long ago in the 1970’s. He is the designer of Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, The Getty Center in Los Angeles and recently, a series of glassy New York condo towers.
Five woman have accused the architect of unwanted sexual advances. Four were his employees, of whom two report his exposing himself to them. The fifth, a furniture designer, describes an attempted rape in Los Angeles, while Meier was working on The Getty Center. The New York Times further reports that following allegations of sexual harassment against Meier in 2009, Alexis Zamlich, then a 22-year-old communications assistant, received a $150,000 legal settlement that also required the firm’s staff to undergo sexual harassment training. A former communications director with Meier’s company has noted that his behavior was an open secret amongst female staffers.
Cathleen McGuigan asked, in her prescient…