WE DOUGLAS HOUSE GETTY CENTER

Harbor Springs, Michigan

Hovering over the shores of Lake Michigan, the Douglas House was built by Richard Meier in 1971-1973 for Jim and Jean Douglas. The house is gently placed on a steep slope over the water, almost as if it is floating amongst the trees. So steep is the slope to the water that the house appears to have been dropped into the site, a machine-crafted object that has landed in a natural world.

As is typical of Meier buildings, the house is completely white made with reinforced concrete and glass except two steel pipes that extend from the chimney up to the roof, framing views at entry level. The white of the house allows it to stick out as a man-made object on the landscape during the changing colors of the seasons, which can be experienced inside through the large glass panels.

The layout establishes a dialogue between the angle of intersection and a number of curvilinear forms that are largely derived from the contours of the site inflected by the Freeway, the metropolitan grid and the natural topography; the overall parts relate to both the City of Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Mountains.

The Getty Center occupies a narrow, hilly stretch high above the San Diego Freeway in Los Angeles California. Jutting southward from the Santa Monica Mountains, the museum’s acropolis-like stature affords spectacular views over the city, the mountains and the ocean.

Like much of his work, it features intersecting planes, and, in its crisp geometric whiteness, it provides a sharp contrast to the natural setting that surrounds it.