Richard Meier is returning to his roots with two new developments in New Jersey, where he grew up.

This 79-year old architect, best known for refined, light-graced houses and cultural landmarks, like the Olympian Getty Center in Los Angeles, has just installed the Richard Meier Model Museum in Jersey City, with some 400 handmade models of projects he’s designed since opening Richard Meier & Partners in 1963. His firm is also building affordable housing and charter schools in downtown Newark, drawing on Mr. Meier’s less-well-known early experiences in community-oriented residential projects.

“It’s really an ambitious project to bring life and activity to this neglected site,” said Mr. Meier, who was born in Newark, pointing out the development’s prime location, across from City Hall.

Last week, the architect, elegant even as he moved a bit slowly with a cane, led a visitor through both projects, with the first stop the museum, a miniature Modernist city now open to the public at Mana Contemporary, which offers a variety of art services and exhibition spaces. The museum gathers much of his life’s work under one roof, and replaces a much smaller version that opened in 2007 in Long Island City, Queens, and that until recently was open only by appointment to students and tour groups.

The new 15,000-square-foot suite in Jersey City has given Mr. Meier room to show his own sculptures, architectural drawings and collages for the first time. He is setting up a research library and a studio space — where he plans to work one day a week — adjoining the office of his daughter, Ana Meier, who is opening an adjacent showroom for her furniture designs.