Marshall D. Meyers architectural records and papers, 1945-2001 (bulk 1957-1980).

Format:

Other

Author/Creator:

Meyers, Marshall D. (Marshall David), 1931-2001.

Contributor:

Kahn, Louis I., 1901-1974.

Mellon, Paul, correspondent.

Moore, Henry, 1898-1986, correspondent.

Pellechia and Meyers.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Meyers, Marshall D. (Marshall David), 1931-2001.

Meyers, Marshall D.

Kahn, Louis I., 1901-1974.

Kahn, Louis I.

Moore, Henry, 1898-1986.

Moore, Henry.

Kimbell Art Museum--Buildings.

Kimbell Art Museum.

Yale Center for British Art--Buildings.

Yale Center for British Art.

Trenton Jewish Community Center--Buildings.

Trenton Jewish Community Center.

Salk Institute for Biological Studies--Buildings.

Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Unité d'habitation (Marseille, France).

Triennale di Milano--(10th : 1954).

Triennale di Milano.

Expo 67 (Montréal, Québec)--Buildings.

Expo 67 (Montréal, Québec).

Architects--Archives.

Architects.

Architectural design--History--20th century--Sources.

Architectural design.

Architectural drawing--United States.

Architectural drawing.

Architecture--United States--History--20th century--Designs and plans.

Architecture.

Disneyland (Calif.)--Buildings, structures, etc.

Disneyland (Calif.).

Genre:

Architectural drawings -- American.

Photographs.

Student drawings.

Motion pictures.

Sound recordings.

Correspondence.

Physical Description:

1154 sheets : various media.

61 items.

490 photoprints, 1431 photonegatives, 2168 slides, 500 transparencies : col.

2 items.

10 cubic ft.

2 cubic ft.

Other Title:

Marshall D. Meyers collection.

Place of Publication:

1945-2001

Biography/History:

Marshall D. Meyers was born in Buffalo and raised in Niagara Falls, NY. He was trained as an industrial designer at the Pratt Institute (graduated 1953) before studying architecture at Yale University, (M.Arch. 1957). Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974) invited Meyers to join his office in 1957, where he remained until 1965. He worked briefly for B. Frank Schlesinger in 1965, and in 1966-1967 he was the project architect for the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan for Geddes, Brecher, Qualls & Cunningham.

After returning to Kahn's employ in 1967, Meyers served as project architect for a number of important works. Most notable is his role in the design of the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, TX. There, he collaborated with Kahn in designing crucial features of the building, particularly the cycloid vaults of the roof and the indirect overhead natural lighting system. In 1973, Meyers left Kahn's office to serve as a consultant to Yale University during the construction of Kahn's Center for British Art. After Kahn's death the following year, Meyers formed a partnership with Anthony Pellecchia to complete the building. Pellecchia & Meyers continued until 1979, when Meyers established his own firm.

In 1985, Meyers joined the office of Bower Lewis Thrower in Philadelphia as a senior associate. In 1992, he resumed independent practice and in 1993 moved to California. He joined the Pasadena office of Perkins & Will in 1999 as a senior associate. Meyers was named to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 1994.

Summary:

The collection comprises student drawings, project-related architectural drawings, photographic materials, professional and personal papers, writings, lectures, interviews, audio tapes, motion pictures, and architectural models. A large portion of this collection relates to the architectural works of Louis I. Kahn. See the Louis I. Kahn Collections (Coll. 030, Coll. 217) for other materials in the Architectural Archives related to Kahn's professional practice.

Examples of Meyers' student drawings from both Pratt Institute and Yale University are preserved, along with an extensive number of project-related architectural drawings. Most important is the extensive documentation of the Yale Center for British Art, a project begun in 1967 by Louis I. Kahn and completed after his death by Meyers and Anthony Pellecchia. The collection contains 580 drawings related to this project - presentation, design, construction, and shop drawings, dated 1972-1978. The collection contains plexiglas study models for the Memorial to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs.

Meyers was a skilled photographer who produced a remarkable body of images documenting numerous projects by Kahn as well as his own works and travels. Meyers extensive photography of Kahn's Richards Medical Research Building, the Kimbell Art Museum, and the Yale Center for British Art, are unparalleled in quality and variety of views. The collection also contains a small number of images by the following photographers: Elna Wilkinson; Eileen C. Ahrenholtz; Bob Wharton; Gabriel DeLobbe; George Cserna; Cervin Robinson; and Tom Brown. In addition to project photography, the collection includes numerous travel photographs and motion pictures. Of particular note are photographs of the Triennale di Milano, Le Corbusier's Unité d'habitation (Marseille), and the studio of noted sculptor Henry Moore (all taken in 1954), and motion picture images of the Salk Institute of Biological Studies (under construction in 1964) and Expo 67 in Montreal. The collection includes a number of photo portraits and motion pictures of Meyers and his family as well as Louis I. Kahn and B. Frank Schlesinger. One of the most extraordinary items in the collection is an eight minute black & white print (with negative) of the 1961 holiday party at Louis I. Kahn's office. This motion picture is a rare, informal look at Kahn, his staff and friends. Attendees included: Robert Venturi, Alan Levy, Richard Saul Wurman, Robert Le Ricolais, David C. S. Polk, among others.

Meyers preserved a substantial number of project and office files. Files related to Kahn projects include "drafting room" files for the Kimbell Art Museum, Inner Harbor project, Memorial to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs, and the Yale Center for British Art. Also related to Kahn are papers documenting his involvement in the planning of the Louis I. Kahn Retrospective project for the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles) and his pivotal role in preventing a proposed expansion to the Kimbell Art Museum. His files include correspondence with William Jordy, Louis I. Kahn, George Kubler, Paul Mellon, Henry Moore, Robert A. M. Stern, Walter Gropius (to Kahn) and Robert Venturi. Materials related to his professional life are found in his resume and AIA fellowship files.

Meyers' experiences working for Kahn are well documented by his numerous writings, lectures and interviews. Of particular note is a lecture he gave on the occasion of the exhibition, "The Construction of the Kimbell Art Museum," held at the Museo d'arte, Mendrisio, Switzerland in 1997-1998. The collection includes his notes for this lecture, a transcript and book manuscript, as well as the slides used (found intact in a carousel). In addition, transcripts and audio tapes document interviews of Louis I. Kahn conducted by Meyers and William Marlin (of Architectural Forum), both from 1972, and William Jordy, from 1973.

Personal and family items include richly illustrated reports and figure drawings completed while Meyers was a student at Niagara Falls High School, as well as yearbooks spanning the years he attended that school (1947-1949). Photography, home movies, letters and other family materials are included in the collection along with several notable books, many of which are autographed. These include Robert Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour's Learning From Las Vegas (a first edition with original dust jacket), Scully's Architecture: The Natural and the Man Made, and Fred Angerer's Surface Structures in Building (cited as the source for the cycloid vault used at the Kimbell Art Museum).

Finding Aid/Index:

Printed finding aid available at the Architectural Archives. For electronic finding aid see Web Link.

This collection is indexed (along with electronic access to selected images) in Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a searchable online database of architectural research materials. See Web Link.

Cited as:

Marshall D. Meyers Collection, The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania.

Access Restriction:

Collection available for research by appointment only.

Online:

Finding Aid

Philadelphia Architects and Buildings