Marcel Breuer : a memoir / Robert F. Gatje ; foreword by I.M. Pei.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gatje, Robert F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Breuer, Marcel, 1902-1981.

Breuer, Marcel.

Breuer, Marcel, 1902-1981--Criticism and interpretation.

Architects--United States--Biography.

Architects.

Criticism and interpretation.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

320 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Monacelli Press, 2000.

Summary:

One of the best known and most admired architects during the 1950s and 1960s, Marcel Breuer is today remembered primarily for the singular design of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. In this long overdue appreciation of the premier modernist, Bob Gatje looks back at the 23 years he worked with Breuer to offer a personal account of Breuer's design methods and practice. The text is complemented by photographs of the buildings, Gatje's own dramatic drawings of the works, and candid photographs of Breuer and his contemporaries.

Born in Hungary, Breuer studied at the Bauhaus in the 1920s, where he became known for taut, avantgarde furniture designs. In the mid-1930s he went to London and was subsequently invited by Walter Gropius to join him on the Harvard faculty. In 1946 Breuer moved to New York. His affinity for natural materials and vernacular architectural expression led him to design spare wood houses that revolutionized modern residential architecture. A series of glass curtain walls was to follow before Breuer made concrete the essential material in his palette.

Drawing on his own memories and experience, as well as extensive interviews with other architects, clients, and friends of Breuer, Gatje details the intricate planning and design that went into buildings for New York and Yale Universities; IBM laboratories in La Gaude, France, and Boca Raton, Florida; an entire ski town in the French Alps; and many other projects. From the passage of time, the exchange of ideas, and their mutual respect, Gatje has drawn a vivid and affecting picture of a unique architectural practice, and of one of the great architects of the modern era.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

1580930298

OCLC:

44016536