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custom panels in the walls of John
Meyer’s office double as a gallery for
his meticulously rendered house
plans. The architect and his wife,
Laura Brooks Meyer (below right),
do use modern technology at work,
but, he says, “I believe the most
efficient and reliable machine is the
human being.”
Photography by Joel Benjamin
➻ Art and architecture merge in a whirl of wondrously detailed drawings on
the desk of John Meyer. In a profession where technology seems to conquer all,
Meyer’s insistence on keeping traditional techniques in his manifest is like a
breath of fresh air. At Meyer & Meyer Inc., the Boston architecture and interior
design firm where Meyer is senior principal architect and his wife, Laura Brooks
Meyer, is senior interior designer, his hand-drawn illustrations have become his
trademark. “These visual images capture more than just the lines of a computer
program,” says Meyer, “and they appeal to the client, making them feel like
they are actually looking at the finished product.”
Meyer, who earned his master’s degree in
architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, has no formal art training, though
he has worked with paint, pastels, and
watercolors. “He’s just always had a natural
ability toward art,” says Brooks Meyer. Not that
he eschews modern gadgetry. He uses computer
programs and sophisticated scanners, but he
finds simple ballpoint pens and Wite-Out
balance the technical components. “Computer
technology organizes what you’re doing, and it
shortcuts the more tedious work,” says Meyer,
“but you can’t accurately get the cone of vision your eye perceives. What you
see in the periphery of your vision is the experience, and there is no computer
program that can capture that.”
In the process, Meyer creates multiple drafts with different variations, so at
any point the client is able to visualize the details of the proposed design. “It’s
creative but still a pretty rigid process,” says Meyer. “The moment I lose myself
in the work is, for me, the definition of pleasure.” — courtney kasianowicz
John Meyer
meyer & meyer inc.
617-266-0555
meyerandmeyerarchitects
.com
