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Article: The unrepentent modernist: from the oilman's museum to the pope's millennial church. (architect Richard Meier wins commission for the Church of the Year 2000 to be built in the Torre Treste area of Rome)(Moreover)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 7, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK
NOBODY could beat Richard Meier in the fight for the commission that he coveted most-not even Frank Gehry, though he was among the architects who certainly tried. That commission is for the Church for the Year 2000 to be built in Tre Torre Treste, a working-class area of Rome that Mr Meier likens to the South Bronx.
Budgeted to cost $5m, and designed to serve as a community centre as well as a church, it is white, spare and coldly harmonious. Oddly, in commissioning it, the Vatican never mentioned the Getty Centre, the new art complex opened in Los Angeles in December. Nor did Pope John Paul II when Mr Meier showed him the plans last February. Yet it ...