Howard Raymond Meyer (1903-1988)

Name

Meyer, Howard Raymond

Personal Information

Birth/Death:    1903-1988; AIA notified of decease 2/20/1991
Occupation:    American architect
Location:    Dallas, TX

This record has not been verified for accuracy.

AIA Affiliation

Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 1942-decease
Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) 1957

Biographical Sources

American Architects Directories:
Biographical listing in 1956 American Architects Directory
Biographical listing in 1962 American Architects Directory
Biographical listing in 1970 American Architects Directory
Biographical information:
Contributed by the Alexander Architectural Archive, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas:
Howard R. Meyer was one of the pioneers of modern architecture in Texas. Born in New York City, he studied at Columbia, graduating with a bachelor of architecture in 1928.
Meyer's exposure to modernism came very early. In 1926 while still a student, he worked in the office of William Lescaze, then the leading representative of the international style on the East Coast. Inspired by what he saw, Meyer, accompanied by his wife Schon, embarked on a year-long trip to Europe to see the work of the leading modernists. On the trip he met Le Corbusier and visited the recently completed German Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart.
He returned to New York in 1929 and worked briefly for Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and Thompson and Churchill. In 1932 he opened an office with Morris B. Saunders, but with the Depression at its height, their practice was largely restricted to small renovation projects and furniture designs.
Lured by the prospect of work, Meyer moved to Dallas in 1935. In the late 1930s and early 1940s he designed a series of small modern houses including the Sanger House (1937), the Rose House (1938), the Pearlstone House (1938), and the Zale House (1939). Built in a modified international style that came to characterize most of his later work, the houses featured brick and redwood exteriors, with simple, free-flowing plans. Meyer also designed furniture for several of the houses in an effort to create a unified effect.
He came closest to realizing this vision of total design in his most important post-war houses, the Charles Storey (1949) and Ben Lipshy (1950) houses. Less formal than his earlier work, the two houses represent Meyer's attempt to synthesize Wright's organic architecture and the international style, and at the same time to develop an idiom that would respond to the Texas climate and native Texas traditions.
Meyer's work, however, was not limited to residential architecture. Over the course of his long career he designed a wide array of commercial and public buildings as well as several churches and synagogues. The Hexter Title & Abstract Building in Dallas (1953) exemplifies the hard-edged modernist style that dominated the 1950s and early 1960s while the luxury high-rise apartment building at 3525 Turtle Creek Boulevard (1950) reflects a sensitivity to materials and siting. Others, like the Administrative Training Building for the Industrial Generating Corporation (1970), are much closer to Wright's organic architecture. In Meyer's best work he was able to integrate these two tendencies to produce architecture that was comfortable and yet uncompromisingly modern.
Perhaps the best example of this later style is Temple Emanuel (1953-59). Meyer worked on the building with noted West Coast architect William W. Wurster, sculptor and muralist Gyorgy Kepes, and Anni Albers to produce a work of unusual sophistication and richness.
Meyer was an AIA Fellow, and in 1959 received an AIA Award of Merit for Temple Emanuel. He continued to work until his death in 1988.

Related Records

Archival Holdings

The American Institute of Architects Archives
      Membership file may contain membership application, Fellowship nomination, related correspondence. Contact the AIA Archives at archives@aia.org for further information.
Alexander Architectural Archive, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas
Howard R. Meyer Drawings photographs and archival records, New York, Texas and Early Modernism, 1924-1986
Personal papers, office files, job files, specifications, printed and visual materials, and drawings document Howard R. Meyer's architectural design career and civic affiliations (1924-1986).
The bulk of the written records, 12.5 linear feet, consists of job files and specifications, containing documentation for more than forty of Meyer's residential designs, most of them within the Dallas Metropolitan area.
Visual material consists of 35mm slides, negatives and photographs illustrating Meyer's residential, commercial and religious work.
The drawings series consists of more than 4,000 items.
For more information https://www.lib.utexas.edu/about/locations/alexander-architectural-archives

Publications