Ara Pacis

Richard Meier has left his mark on Rome with the museum surrounding the Ara Pacis. The first new structure to rise in the city center in seventy years, it is an essay in mediocrity (he had to compromise his plans over the course of the ten-year project). However, the monument it houses—the Emperor Augustus’s first century B.C. altar to peace, with its superb bas-relief carvings—is one of the great wonders of Rome. The contrast between the work of modern man and that of ancient days is remarkable.