Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer
Born	Marcel Lajos Breuer (1902-05-21)May 21, 1902 Pécs, Austria-Hungary
Died	July 1, 1981(1981-07-01) (aged 79) New York City, USA
Nationality	Hungarian
Occupation	Architect
Awards	AIA Gold Medal (1968)
Buildings	The Geller House I, UNESCO headquarters, Ameritrust Tower Breuer's only skyscraper project
Design	Wassily Chair

Marcel Lajos Breuer (pronounced BROY-ər ;22 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer extended the sculptural vocabulary he had developed in the carpentry shop at the Bauhaus into a personal architecture that made him one of the world’s most popular architects at the peak of 20th-Century design.

Life and work

Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó (the diminutive of his middle name and pronounced LOY-ko), Breuer left his hometown at the age of 18 in search of artistic training and was one of the first and youngest students at the Bauhaus– a radical arts and crafts school that Walter Gropius had founded in Weimar just after the first World War. He was recognized by Gropius as a significant talent and was quickly put at the head of the Carpentry Shop. (Gropius was to remain a lifelong mentor for his junior by 19 years.)

After the school had moved from Weimar to Dessau in 1925, Breuer returned from a brief sojourn in Paris to join older faculty members such as Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee as a master,eventually teaching in its newly established department of architecture.

First recognized for his invention of bicycle-handlebar-inspired tubular steel furniture, Breuer lived off his design fees at a time in the late 1920s and early 1930s when the architectural commissions he was looking for were few and far-between.  He was known to such giants as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, whose architectural vocabulary he was later to adapt as part of his own, but hardly considered an equal by men who were his senior by 15 and 16 years. Despite the widespread popular belief that the chair was designed for Wassily Kandinsky, it was not; Kandinsky admired Breuer's finished chair design, and only then did Breuer make an additional copy for Kandinsky's use in his home. When the chair was re-released in the 1960s, it was designated "Wassily" by its Italian manufacturer, who had learned that Kandinsky had been the recipient of one of the earliest post-prototype units.

It was Gropius who assigned him Interiors at the 1927 Weissenhofsiedlung and led him to his first house assignment for the Harnischmachers in Wiesbaden in 1932. Sigfried Giedion extended their furniture collaboration at the Wohnbedarf in Zurich to include a furniture showroom and the great Dolderthal apartments just outside of town.

In the 1930s, due to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, Breuer relocated to London. Breuer’s departure from then Nazi Germany has led some scholars to lump him with the group of Jewish architects and artists who fled the country at that time. Although Breuer’s parents were Jewish, it was only in 1981 that Christopher Wilk, preparing his Interiors book for MoMA, found his formal renunciation of Jewishness before the Chief Rabbi of Frankfurt in the Breuer archives at Syracuse. Breuer declared himself as non-religious in order to marry his Bauhaus sweetheart, Marta Erps. 

While in London, Breuer was employed by Jack Pritchard at the Isokon company; one of the earliest proponents of modern design in the United Kingdom. Breuer designed his Long Chair as well as experimenting with bent and formed plywood. Between 1935 and 1937 he worked in practice with the English Modernist F. R. S. Yorke with whom he designed a number of houses.

In 1937, Gropius accepted the appointment as chairman of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and again Breuer followed his mentor to join the faculty in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two men formed a partnership that was to greatly influence the establishment of an American way of designing modern houses – spread by their great collection of wartime students including Paul Rudolph, Eliot Noyes, I.M. Pei, Ulrich Franzen, John Johansen, and Philip Johnson.  One of the most intact examples of Breuer's furniture and interior design work during this period is the Frank House in Pittsburgh, designed with Gropius as a Gesamtkunstwerk.

University of Massachusetts campus center (right), Amherst, 1965-1969

Breuer broke with his father-figure, Walter Gropius, in 1941 over a very minor issue but the major reason may have been to get himself out from under the better-known name that dominated their practice. Breuer married their secretary, Constance Crocker Leighton, and after a few more years in Cambridge, moved down to New York City (with Harry Seidler as his chief draftsman) to establish a practice that was centered there for the rest of his life.

The Geller House I of 1945 is one of the first to employ Breuer's concept of the 'binuclear' house, with separate wings for the bedrooms and for the living / dining / kitchen area, separated by an entry hall, and with the distinctive 'butterfly' roof (two opposing roof surfaces sloping towards the middle, centrally drained) that became part of the popular modernist style vocabulary. Breuer built two houses for himself in New Canaan, Connecticut: Breuer House, New Canaan I from 1947 to 1948, and Breuer House, New Canaan II 1951 two 1952. A demonstration house set up in the MOMA garden in 1949 caused a flurry of interest in the architect's work, and an appreciation written by Peter Blake. When the show was over, the "House in the Garden" was dismantled and barged up the Hudson River for reassembly on the Rockefeller property in Pocantico Hills near Sleepy Hollow.

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

His first two important institutional buildings were the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in 1955 (directed his way by Gropius over the objections of Le Corbusier) and the monastic Master Plan and Church at St John’s Abbey in Minnesota in 1954 (again, in part, on the recommendation of Gropius, a “competitor” for the job,who told the monks they needed a younger man who could finish the job.) These commissions were a turning point in Breuer's career: a return to larger projects after years of only residential commissions and the beginning of Breuer's adoption of concrete as his primary medium.

Throughout the almost 30 years and nearly 100 buildings that followed, Breuer worked with a number of partners and associates with whom he openly and insistently shared design credit:  Pier Luigi Nervi at UNESCO; Herbert Beckhard, Robert Gatje, Hamilton Smith and Tician Papachristou in New York, Mario Jossa and Harry Seidler in Paris for the ski-town Flaine and the Australian Embassy. Their contribution to his life work has largely been credited properly, though the critics and public rightly recognized a “Breuer Building” when they saw one.

Breuer’s architectural vocabulary moved through at least four recognizable phases:

1-The white box and glass school of the International style that he adapted for his early houses in Europe and the USA:  the Harnischmacher House, Gropius House, Frank House, and his own first house in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

2-The punctured wooden walls that characterized his famous 1948 “House in the Garden”for MoMA and a series of relatively modest houses for knowledgeable university faculty  families in the 50s. This included the first of his houses in New Canaan, CT, with its balcony hung off a cantilever.

3-The modular prefabricated concrete panel façades that first enclosed his favorite IBM Laboratory in La Gaude, France and went on to be used in many of his institutional buildings plus the whole town at Flaine.  Some critics spoke of repetitiveness but Breuer quoted a professional friend: “I can’t design a whole new system every Monday morning.”

4-The stone and shaped concrete he used for unique and memorable commissions: his best-known project, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Muskegon and St John’s Abbey Churches, the Atlanta Public Library, and his second house in New Canaan.

Breuer was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects at their 100th annual convention in 1968 at Portland, OR. In an ironic timing of events it coincided with general criticism of one of America’s favorite architects for his willingness to design a multi-story office building on top of Grand Central Station.  The project was never built.  It cost him many friends and supporters although its defeat by the US Supreme Court established the right of New York and other cities to protect their landmarks.During his lifetime, Breuer rarely acknowledged the influence of other architects’ work upon his own but he had certainly picked up the use of rough board-formed concrete from Le Corbusier and the noble dignity of his second New Canaan house seems to have directly descended from Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion.  Shortly before his death, he told an interviewer that he considered his principle contribution to have been the adaptation of the work of older architects to the needs of modern society. He died in his apartment in Manhattan in 1981, leaving his wife Connie, son Tom,and daughter Cesca.  His partners kept offices going in his name and with his permission in Paris and New York for several years but, with their eventual retirement, each is now closed.Breuer’s work is reflected in the memory and product of hundreds of students and associates.

Breuer is sometimes incorrectly credited, or blamed, for the former Pan Am Building (now the MetLife Building), an unpopular high-rise in New York City. The Pan Am was actually designed by Emery Roth & Sons with the assistance of Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi. Breuer's name was associated with the site because in 1969 Breuer developed a 55-story proposed skyscraper over Grand Central Terminal, called "Grand Central Tower", which Ada Louise Huxtable called "a gargantuan tower of aggressive vulgarity," and which became a cause celebre. Breuer's reputation was damaged, but the legal fallout improved the climate for landmark building preservation in New York City and across the United States.

Works (partial list)

Breuer donated many of his professional papers and drawings to the Special Collections Research Center at the Syracuse University library beginning in the late 1960s. The remainder of his papers, including most of his personal correspondence were donated to the Archives of American Art between 1985 and 1999 by Breuer's wife, Constance.

Private residential buildings (U.S.)

• Hagerty House, Cohasset, Massachusetts, 1937–1938
• Breuer House I, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1938–1939
• J. Ford House, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1939
• Waldenmark, Wrightstown Township, Pennsylvania (with Walter Gropius), 1939, 1948
• Chamberlain Cottage, Wayland, Massachusetts, 1940
• Geller House, Lawrence, Long Island, New York, 1945
• Tompkins House. Hewlett Harbor, New York, 1945
• Robinson House, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1946–1948http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Marcel_Breuer
• Breuer House I, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1947–1948
• Breuer House II, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1951–1952
• Neumann House, Croton on Hudson, New York, 1953
• Robinson House. Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1947
• Kniffin House, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1949 (w/ Eliot Noyes)(destroyed)
• Cape Cod Cottages 1945-1963
  • Breuer Cottage, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1945–1949–1961
  • Kepes Cottage, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1948–1949
• Lauck House, Princeton, New Jersey, 1950
  • Edgar Stillman Cottage, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1953–1954
  • Wise Cottage, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1963
• Clark House. Orange, Connecticut, 1949
• Marshad House, Croton-on-Hudson, New York, 1949
• Wolfson House. Pleasant Valley, New York, 1949
• Stillman House I, Litchfield, Connecticut, 1950
• Exhibition House in the MoMA Garden, Kykuit, Pocantico Hills, Tarrytown, New York, 1948–1949
• Pack House, Scarsdale, New York, 1950–1951
• Hanson House. Huntington, Long Island, New York, 1951
• Breuer House III. New Canaan, Connecticut, 1951
• Caesar Cottage. Lakeville, Connecticut, 1952
• Gagarin House 1, Litchfield, Connecticut, 1955
• Grieco House, Andover, Massachusetts, 1954–1955
• Starkey House, Duluth, Minnesota, 1954–1955
• Hooper House II, Baltimore County, Maryland. 1956–1959
• Laaff House. Andover, Massachusetts, 1957 (with H. Beckhard)
• Seymour Krieger House, Bethesda, Maryland, 1958
• Stachelin House. Feldmeilen, Switzerland, 1958 (with H. Beckhard)
• Stillman II, Litchfield, Connecticut, 1966
• Soriano House. Greenwich, Connecticut, 1969 (with T. Papachristou)
• Stillman III, Litchfield, Connecticut, 1973–74
• Gagarin House II, Litchfield CT, 1974
• Stillman Roman Cottage, Litchfield, Connecticut, 1974 (Breuer Wellfleet Cottage plans; Built by Rufus Stillman)

Private residential buildings (Abroad)

• Villa Sayer, Haras de la Huderie, Normandy France, 1962

Public / commercial buildings

• Several original buildings at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota
• Gane Pavilion, Bristol, 1936
• Pennsylvania Pavilion, 1939 New York World's Fair, 1939
• Aluminum City Terrace housing project, New Kensington, Pennsylvania. 1942–1944
• Ariston Club, Mar del Plata, Argentina with Eduardo Catalano, and Francisco Coire. 1948.

St. John's Abbey Church at the campus of Saint John's University, 1961

Pirelli Tire Building, 1969. Large portion was demolished for an IKEA parking lot in 2003.

Atlanta central library, 1980

• Dexter Ferry Cooperative House of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. 1951
• UNESCO headquarters, Paris, France. 1953 (with Pier Luigi Nervi and Bernard Zehrfuss).
• De Bijenkorf department store, Rotterdam, Netherlands 1955-1957.
• various buildings at the St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota 1959-1975:
  • Saint Thomas Hall. 1959
  • Saint John's Abbey Church. 1961
  • Alcuin Library. 1964
  • Peter Engel Science Center. 1965
  • Saints Bernard, Patrick, and Boniface Halls. 1967
  • Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research. 1968
  • Bush Center. 1975
• United States Embassy, The Hague, Netherlands. 1958
• Multiple buildings University at Buffalo North Campus.
  • Furnas Hall. 1977
  • Bell Hall. 1974
• City University of New York, Herbert H. Lehman College, Fine Arts Building
• various buildings at New York University (now Bronx Community College) University Heights Campus, Bronx, New York:
  • Begrisch (Lecture) Hall. 1961
  • Gould Hall of Technology (now Polowczek Hall). 1964
  • Colston (Residence) Hall, originally Silver Hall, 1957–61
  • Tech I & II (now Meister Hall)
• Campus Center and Garage, University of Massachusetts Amherst. 1965/69
• The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. 1966
• Armstrong Rubber/Pirelli Tire Building (partly demolished for an IKEA parking lot), Long Wharf, New Haven, Connecticut. 1969
• Flaine, France. (the entire ski resort town, population 6000), completed 1969
• Becton Engineering and Applied Science Center, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. 1970
• AT Tower, Cleveland, Ohio, 1971
• Cleveland Museum of Art North Building expansion, Cleveland, Ohio, 1971
• Bryn Mawr School Lower School complex, Baltimore, Maryland. 1972
• Australian Embassy in Paris (consulting architect). 1973
• Boca Corporate Center & Campus (formerly the IBM Complex, Blue Lake, and T-REX Corporate Center), University Park, Florida (later annexed by Boca Raton), 1968–1974
• American Press Institute, Reston, Virginia, 1974
• IBM Research Center, La Gaude, France, 1961–1979
• Strom Thurmond Federal Building and United States Courthouse, Columbia, South Carolina, 1975-1979
• The Central Library of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System in Atlanta, Georgia, 1980.
• Broward County Main Library. Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. 1984.
• Robert C. Weaver Federal Building (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development headquarters), Washington, D.C.
• Hubert H. Humphrey Building (US Department of Health and Human Services), Washington, D.C.
• Litchfield High School, Litchfield, Conn.
• St. Francis de Sales Parish - Muskegon, Michigan [1]

St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church, Muskegon, MI 1966

• Grosse Pointe Public Library, Central Branch, Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
• Clarksburg-Harrison County Public Library, Clarksburg, West Virginia
• Wohnbedarf Furniture Store, Zurich.
• Doldertal Houses (apartment blocks), Zurich.

Furniture

Wassily Chair

Marcel Breuer. Table, Model B19, ca. 1928 Brooklyn Museum

Marcel Breuer. Long Chair, ca. 1935-1936 Brooklyn Museum

• African chair, Collaboration with the Bauhaus weaver Gunta Stölzl
• Sun Lounge Chair, Model No. 301
• Dressing Table & Bureau. 1922, 1925
• Slatted chairs (wood). 1922–24
• Wassily Chair No.B3. 1925
• Laccio Tables, small & large. 1927
• Wassily chair, folding. 1927
• Cesca Chair & Armchair. 1928
• Thornet Typist's Desk. 1928
• Coffee Table. 1928
• Tubular steel furniture. 1928–29
• F 41 lounge chair on wheels. 1928–30
• Broom Cupboard. 1930
• Bookcase. 1931
• Armchair, Model No.301. 1932–34
• Aluminium chair. 1933
• Isokon furniture 1935-36
  • Nesting tables. 1936
  • Dining Table. 1936
  • Stacking Chairs. 1936
  • Long Chair. 1935-36
• Aluminium chaise longue. 1935–36
• Plywood furniture (five pieces). 1936–37

Legacy

In November 2007, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. developed an exhibition dedicated to the work of Marcel Breuer. The exhibition, titled Marcel Breuer: Design and Architecture, was available to the public until February 2008.

See also

• Cape Cod Modern House Trust
• Category:Marcel Breuer buildings

References

• VV.AA., "4 Centenarios. Luis Barragán, Marcel Breuer, Arne Jacobsen, José Luis Sert", Valladolid, España, 2002, Universidad de Valladolid, ISBN 84-8448-199-9

External links

• Marcel Breuer Digital Archive, Syracuse University
• From the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution:
  • The Marcel Breuer Papers Online consist of digitized primary source documents, including biographical material, correspondence, business and financial records, interviews, notes, writings, sketches, project files, exhibition files, photographs, and printed material
  • A Finding Aid to the Marcel Breuer Papers, by archivist Jean Fitzgerald, contains an excellent and extensive biography and chronology based on the primary source collection
  • Marcel Breuer: A Centennial Celebration is the online version of a 2002 exhibition.
• Yankee Portables by Marcel Breuer - an overview with slideshow.* Marcel Breuer at the Museum of Modern Art
• Marcel Breuer, Saint John's Abbey and University
• Marcel Breuer, 1902-1981. The Breuer Lectures Collection: An Inventory (Harvard University)
• Marcel Breuer at Saint John's: The architect used Gothic inspiration to create a Modernist campus from the Chronicle of Higher Education
• Newspaper articles and archival images from the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University Digital Image Library "Vivarium"
• Current works of former Breuer collaborators and associates Michele Michahelles and Mario Jossa
• Plas-2-Point House by Marcel Breuer - an overview with slideshow
• Kniffin House, 1948
• Marcel Breuer on Architectuul