To me, the minimalist aesthetic is the most humanist of all, one that elicits the full power of all our senses, says Richard Meier.

The Gagosian Gallery, in Beverly Hills, designed by Richard Meier in 1995, reflects the New York architect’s pure expression of modernism—a blend of pristine, white walls and glass grids creating intersecting volumes. Using just the right Meierisms, the expansion of the Gagosian Gallery maintains its original distinctive qualities of space and light.

The new space is designed to take advantage of the Los Angeles’ climate with 3,000 hours of yearly sun and to support its flourishing contemporary art scene. The reuse of a curved wood barrel-vault roof is a great contrast to the lightness of Mr. Meier’s architecture and iconic white aesthetic. The stunning Getty Center, in Los Angeles is one of his most celebrated commissions.

Mr. Meier’s ‘white' is never just white.

White is about color, he insists. The whiteness is also a way of articulating the architectural ideas in the clearest ways: the difference between openness and closure, between transparency and opaqueness.

Thank goodness for this Meiericity—a fantasy of an optimistic environment where I feel uplifted. Hello, grids… and whiteness.