When the New York Times published sexual harassment allegations against the star architect Richard Meier in March 2018, his namesake firm was on the verge of completing several major projects. It fell to leadership at the company to deliver the bad news to the owners of those projects. “We called them up, we told them the story,” says Bernhard Karpf, managing principal of Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP. “We said that there was this thing coming out in the New York Times and that [we] wanted them to be aware of it, whatever’s true or not true.”
Meier immediately announced he would take a six-month leave, issuing a statement that included the sentence “While our recollections may differ, I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my behavior.” Soon after, Cornell University announced it would refuse a major monetary gift from Meier.
Architect Richard Meier.
Photographer: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images North America
To Karpf’s surprise, however, none of the firm’s clients left. Two were about to launch marketing campaigns, and Karpf suggested that they “hold off for a few days or so,” he says. But otherwise, “they were all OK and all good.”
That’s not to say his New York clients didn’t have “to do a little bit of thinking on their own,” he continues. “But, interestingly enough, just three months ago, four months ago, reading through New York Times Magazinewith glossy real estate ads for all the fabulous projects coming up, I see our name—big and bold again—in connection with the East River project.” The takeaway, Karpf says: “Obviously, it’s not the toxic thing we thought it would be.”
Representatives from Solow Building Co., the developers still using Meier’s name in 685 First Ave. marketing materials, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Karpf refers to what he calls “the New York echo chamber,” which is a “New York-centric way of looking at the world.” When the harassment allegations against Meier were published, he says, “somehow one of the hometown boys is in trouble now, and that makes it all very important to New York.” In the rest of the world, Karpf says, “it’s not the case.”
Nevertheless, seven months after the allegations surfaced, the firm announced that Meier would “step back from day-to-day activities.” Karpf was named managing principal of the New York office and, with the three other principals in the company, took over its operations.