Richard Erdman Sculpture Joins Landmark Richard Meier Building in Taipei, Taiwan
March 03, 2016
Internationally-known Vermont based sculptor Richard Erdman has been commissioned by one of the world’s leading architects, Richard Meier, for his Timeless Tower building currently under construction in Taipei, Taiwan. The building, the architect’s first residential building in the Taiwanese capital, will feature an innovative integration with the surrounding community, as the privately-held outdoor grounds at the building’s main entryway will double as a public park. At this threshold of public and private space, of lush gardens and minimal architecture, Richard Erdman’s “Arete,” an open, dynamic gray marble sculpture will dramatically ascend from a table of water to a height of nearly 12 feet. Bridging nature and architecture, geometry and gesture, “Arete” will bring public art into an innovative hybrid space and mark a productive collaboration between two prodigious creators.
Meier’s “Timeless Tower” will rise some 415 feet in a slim white rectangular pier gridded with balconies, linking Meier’s signature minimal white aesthetic and residential luxury. The Tower will hover above the Taipei skyline in dialogue with the iconic Taipei 101 Tower a block away.
Art and Architecture
“Arete” will be carved from Italian Bardiglio marble—a dark stone streaked with bright white veins —and will connect to the lightness and geometric structure of the tower. The work will achieve what the sculptor calls “a harmony of opposites,” drawing viewers’ attention simultaneously to the peaceful site of the garden where they stand, and to the soaring heights of the Meier building before them. Erdman’s characteristic use of form to enrich viewers’ experiences of natural sites is a sensitive choice for Meier’s first residential building in the urban center of Taipei, where “Arete” and its surrounding gardens will afford residents and denizens of the bustling city of 2.6 million people a reprieve from the fast-paced transit of daily life.
Richard Meier and Partners is internationally renowned for clean, minimal designs that make profound use of open space to expand the possibilities of architecture. Lauded for hundreds of projects around the globe and winner of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, Richard Meier is a bold and important presence in contemporary architecture. Richard Erdman’s works in stone and bronze reside in hundreds of private and public collections worldwide. His public commissions have included sculptures for the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens at PepsiCo, the University of Vermont, the East West Institute, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among many others.