Born in Pecs, Hungary, Marcel Breuer set off for Vienna in 1920 to study art but disliked the atmosphere at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. In 1921 he went to the Bauhaus School in Weimer, Germany, founded by Walter Gropius, known for wholistic teaching of the arts and architecture as a profession and as a lifestyle. Gropius was one of the most influential teachers and architects of the Modern movement in America.
After graduating from the Bauhaus with a Masters of Architecture degree in 1924, Breuer moved to Paris to study. Gropius invited Breuer back to the Bauhaus in 1925 to work as Master of the Carpentry Shop where he made a great impression on the world of design with the iconic tubular steel chair inspired by bicycle handlebars, an icon which would become known as the Breuer (aka Cesca) chair, below left. His Wassilly chair, below right, was also popular.
Breuer married Martha Erps in 1926. They left Berlin in 1932, left Germany for London in 1935, and left the UK for the US in 1937 after Gropius invited him to teach at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Breuer's students included I. M. Pei, Philip Johnson, and Paul Rudolph. Through his roles as teacher and Gropius's business partner, Breuer became a highly influential member of the Modern movement promoting and implementing Bauhaus concepts. A key example of those ideas in practice was Black Mountain College in North Carolina.
Herbert Beckhard, left, joined Breuer as an associate in 1956 and became his partner and design coordinator in 1964. They collaborated on projects in Europe and the United States, including the Washington headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the University of Massachusetts Campus Center in Amherst, the Strom Thurmond Federal Office Building and Courthouse in Columbia SC, St. John's Abbey in Collegeville MN, the UNESCO World Headquarters in Paris (with Pier Luigi Nervi and Bernard Zehrfuss), the IBM Research Center in La Gaude, France, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and the Armstrong Rubber Company Headquarters in West Haven CT.
The AIA awarded Breuer the Gold Medal in 1968 and l'Academie d'Architecture in France the Grande Medaille d'Or in 1976. Breuer was honored with the first one-man show for a living American architect at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1972 and a one-man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1981. Breuer died in New York City later that year. He is buried under the pines next to his house in Wellfleet MA. The spot is marked by a simple stone that he and his partner, Herbert Beckhard, brought back from a trip to Japan.
Beckhard left the firm in the 1980's and it was renamed Gatje Papachristou Smith -- which dissolved in 1986.
Additional Resources: Breuer Archive at Syracuse.
1923 - Unnamed apartment. Unbuilt. Location unknown.
1925 - The Wissinger Apartment, Berlin, Germany.
Address unknown; do you know where it is? It was completed.
Around 1925 - The Northman Apartment, Berlin, Germany. Address unknown. Built.
1926 - The Walter Gropius House, Dessau, Germany. Commissioned 1925.
1926 - The Hans Wilhelm Karl Ludwig Grote Residence, Dessau, Germany. Status and address unknown; do you know where it is?
1926 - The Laszlo and Lucia Moholy-Nagy Apartment and Studio, Dessau, Germany. Designed with Walter Gropius. They moved out in 1928; Josef Albers and his wife were the next tenants. Address unknown; do you know where it is?
1926 - The Muche/Schlemmer House, Ebertallee 59-71, 06846, Dessau-Rosslau Germany. One of the Master Houses for Bauhaus faculty, it was a duplex for Georg and El Muche and for Oskar and Tut Schlemmer, teachers at the Bauhaus. Designed with Walter Gropius. The Director's house which was included in the 4 houses built was destroyed. The other 3 were extensively renovated in 1992. The unit that artists Klee and Kandinsky shared is closed for 2018, the other two are open for tours.
1926 - The Hildegard and Erwin Piscator Apartment, Berlin, Germany. Breuer also designed the furniture. Bottom photo includes Hildegard Piscator. Address unknown; do you know where it is?
1926 - The Thoost House, Hamburg, Germany.
Address unknown; do you know where it is?
1927 - The Bambos Houses, Dessau, Germany. Unbuilt row of prefab houses for Bauhaus masters Bayer, Albers, Mayer, Breuer, Otte and Schmidt (BAMBOS).
1928 - The Spandau-Haselhorst Housing, Spandau, Germany. Unbuilt. Designed for a competition.
1928 - The Marcel and Martha Erps Breuer Apartment, Berlin, Germany. Address unknown; do you know where it is?
1929 - The Gottfried and Gertrud Heinersdorff House, Pfleidererstrasse 4, Berlin-Lichterfelde, Berlin, Germany. Commissioned 1928. Breuer was the interior designer and designed the furniture; the architect was Walter Würzbach.
According to grandson Tom Heinersdorff, Otto Bolte owned this part of the plot of land between Kohlerstrasse, Friedrichstrasse, Kommandantenstrasse and Pfleidererstrasse, and let Gottfried Heinersdorff build a house on it. The family left for financial reasons in 1936 and moved 4km away.
The house was seized at the close of WWII by American occupation forces. When Gertrud Heinersdorff returned in 1953, the roof needed repairs, and the lens window and all the furniture had disappeared. She rented the building and grounds to the Catholic Aquinata sisterhood, which turned it into a hospital for women. Later the nuns bought it and after that received permission to demolish it around 1972 to build a new hospital, bottom photo (the house stood to the rear of the second, more modern-looking building).
1928 - The Melder House, Mahrisch-Ostrau, Czechoslovakia. Raised concrete frame structure. Unsure if built.
1929 - The De Francesco Apartment, Berlin, Germany. Address unknown; do you know where it is?
1929 - Kleinmetalhaus ("small metal house"), plans and drawings for a prefabricated house. Unbuilt.
1929 - The Von der Heydt Apartment Interiors, Berlin, Germany. Building designed by Karl Hoffmann. Address unknown; do you know where it is?
1929 - The Lewin House, Berlin Germany. Address uknown; do you know where it is?
1929 - The Schneider House, Weisbaden Germany. Unsure if built.
1930 - The Boroschek Apartment, Berlin, Germany. Address unknown; do you know where it is?
1931 - The Reidemeister House, Berlin, Germany. Address unknown; do you know where it is?
1933 - The Harnischmacher I House, Schöne Aussicht 53, Wiesbaden, Germany. Destroyed in WWII. Designed with Walter Gropius.
1934 - The Dolderthal Apartments, Dolderthal 17-19, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland. Designed with Alfred and Emil Roth.
1936 - The Gane Pavilion House, Bristol UK. Built by Breuer and York for PE Gane Ltd., a Bristol furniture manufacturer with a Modernist line. The house was built for the Royal Agricultural Show in Ashton Park just outside Bristol and was destroyed when the show closed.
1936 - The Crofton Gane House, 24 Downs Park West, Clifton suburb of Bristol, England. A furniture manufacturer commissioned Breuer, at the same time that the Gane Pavillion was built, to remodel his house. Both projects were aimed at promoting Gane's Modernist furniture. The house still stands but its contents were removed in the 1970s. Quite a bit of the is furniture in various public collections.
1936 - The Dorothea (Dora) Ventris Apartment Renovation, 47 High Point, North Hill, Highgate, London, UK. Breuer also designed the furniture, including this hifi sideboard. Dora Ventris died in 1940, her son Michael in 1956; his wife Lois in 1988. The bulk of the Breuer furniture was sold at auction in 2002.
1937 - The Sea Lane House, aka MacNabb House, East Preston, Angmering-On-Sea, Sussex, England. Designed with F. R. S. Yorke. Bottom photo by Spellner Millner.
1938 - The Margolius House, Palm Springs CA. Designed with Walter Gropius. The couple divorced before construction could begin. Unbuilt.
1938 - The John Hagerty House, aka the Josephine Hagerty House, 357 Atlantic Avenue, Cohasset MA. Commissioned 1937 as a summer house for the client's mother. Designed with Walter Gropius. Photos by Dean Kaufman. Sold three times; with several renovations. The fifth owner is a Ms. Sasseen who bought it in 2001 and was featured in DWELL. Sold to Atlantic Avenue Realty Trust. The hanging porch with a stairway was a theme used by Breuer and was present in his 1933 - Harnischmacher I House. The terrace over the study is now a bedroom, the window woodwork has been replaced to be more energy-efficient but is not as elegant as the original, and the aerial porch has lost the screen window frames. This was the second house Breuer did in America and the first done in partnership with Gropius. Third photo by David Sundberg/ESTO.
1939 - The Marcel Breuer House I, 5 Woods End Road, Lincoln MA. Commissioned 1938. Breuer married Constance (Connie) Crocker Leighton in 1940. Designed with Walter Gropius. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The original house was enlarged on the north and east sides, which was foreseen by Breuer. The veranda screen windows were replaced by glass, the chimney grew to be higher than the north addition, and spouts were turned into drain pipes. Sold to Mark Goldstein and Myrna Chandler-Goldstein. Bottom left photo: Herbert Bayer (back of head), Marian Willard (back), Ise Gropius (center), and Ati Gropius (above), circa 1940. Bottom right photo: Constance Breuer (at railing), Dottie Noyes (on bookshelf), and Christopher Tunnard, circa 1940.
1939 - The Edward and Margrit Fischer House and Studio, aka Waldermark, 1300 Wrightstown Road, Newtown PA. Commissioned 1938. Designed with Walter Gropius. The Fischers were friends of Breuer and Gropius from the Bauhaus days. Breuer designed a guest house, at 1280 Wrightstown Road, which was built in 1948. There is also a garage. Sold in 1996 to David F. and Cecily R. Itkoff.
1940 - The Robert and Cecelia Frank Residence, 96 East Woodland Road, Pittsburgh PA. Designed with Walter Gropius. Commissioned in 1939 after the Franks visited Gropius' house in Lincoln MA. 12,000-sf, complete with a dining room that seats 24 people, curved glass facade, five terraces, nine bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and a 40x20 indoor swimming pool. Deeded to their son Alan I. W. Frank. Website. Photos by Joe Marinaro and Pete Copeland.
1940 - The Chamberlain Cottage, 68 Moore Road (aka Wayside Road), Wayland (aka Sudbury) MA. Designed with Walter Gropius. 7.8 acres. Sold around 1995 to architects Sidney R. Bowen and Angela E. Watson who did a renovation and expansion. Part of the movie The Surrogates was filmed there. Sold in 2005 to Perry and Amy Beckett. Top photo by Ezra Stoller/ESTO. Sold in 2016 to 68 Moore Road Rt and Perry Beckett. Sold in 2016 to Geoffrey Vonmaltzahn and Maxine Sharkey-Giammo.
1941 - The Abele House, 325 Winter Street, Framingham MA. Designed with Walter Gropius. Sold in 1992. Sold in 1995 to Oded Feingold and Andrea Majewska.
1941 - The Sprinza Weizenblatt Residence, 46 Marlborough Road, Asheville NC. Weizenblatt came to Asheville from Austria to practice ophthalmology. Commissioned 1940. Asheville's Anthony Lord was the supervising architect. Upon her death, the property was given to Bertrand and Hertha Horwitz, Weizenblatt's niece. Deeded in 2006 to 46 Marlborough Road LLC, controlled by Hertha Horwitz. Bottom photo by Mary Jo Brezny.
1942 - The Plas 2 Point House, designed as easily transportable, low-cost housing for returning soldiers from WWII. These were demountable houses to rest on two short piers, thus saving on foundation and cellar costs. The floor and roof are formed with cantilevered plywood girders, the end walls are rigid panels in tension. Breuer had this model built of the project and used it as part of his design curriculum while teaching at Harvard. It was never built on a full scale.
1942 - The Yankee Portables plans for two bedroom row house unit. Unbuilt.
1943 - The Stuyvesant Six Apartments, a Housing Redevelopment in New York NY. Unbuilt. Featured in Pencil Points 1944.
1944 - The 1200 Square Foot House, aka Postwar Home for the Ladies Home Journal. to be located somewhere in Florida. Unsure if built.
1944 - The Aluminum City Terrace Housing Project, Aluminum City Terrace, New Kensington PA near Pittsburgh. Designed with Walter Gropius. Built by the federal government to house defense workers during World War II. Continues to operate as a successful cooperative.
1944 - The East River Apartments, New York NY. Unbuilt.
1944 - The Long Beach Hospital Nurses Residence, Long Beach, Long Island NY. Breuer was not yet licensed in New York and formed an association with architect Serge Chermayeff. According to the Breuer records at Syracuse, the hospital client forced Breuer to work with an additional architect, Walter Katz, that the hospital had contracted with previously. No one was happy about it, and the project went unbuilt. Breuer resurrected the residence for the Ferry Cooperative Dormitory at Vassar.
1945 - The Florida House, Miami Heights FL. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Gilbert C. and Martha G. Tompkins House, 115 Lake Drive, Hewlett Harbor NY. Commissioned 1945. Located on the golf course at the Seawane Harbor Club. B/W photos by Ezra Stoller/ESTO. Sold in 1965 to C. Rosengarten, who added an enclosed porch. Sold in 1973 to Paul J. and Rita G. O'Keefe. Sold in late 1987. A minor fire broke out January 12, 1993. The next day, another fire completely destroyed the house. A contemporary house, not by Breuer, was later built on the site.
1946 - The Layng Martine House, Stamford CT. Was to be built near one of Breuer's properties. Unbuilt, according to his son.
1946 - The Small House Competition plans. Unbuilt.
1947 - The Bertram (Bert) and Phyllis Geller House I, 175 Ocean Avenue, Lawrence NY. Commissioned 1944. Breuer called this layout binuclear, separating the living-dining-kitchen area from the sleeping area. Breuer also designed much of the furniture. Built by Gordon Roth. Featured in Arts and Architecture, June 1947. Architect Leon Rosenthal designed the 1967 pool installation. Sold sometime later to Geller's son and his wife, Burton and Helene Geller. Sold to Edward and Laura Labaton in 1992. Architect John F. Capobianco designed 1992 alterations.
1947 - The Arthur W. and Marion Gordon Thompson House, aka Wonderwood, near Wonderwood Country Club Road, Ligonier (actually Rector) PA. Marion Thompson met Breuer through her son Roland who was attending Harvard's architecture program. Deeded to their son Gordon Thompson and his wife Jane Reeves Thompson. Featured in L'architecture d'aujourd'hui 23 (September 1952). Sold in 1988 to Harry and Jane Thompson (no relation, it's purely a coincidence), still owners as of 2016. There was a kitchen renovation and replacement of all the single-pane windows, but otherwise the house is in good condition.
1948 - The Preston Robinson House, aka the Robinson Estate, 236 Bulkley Street, Williamstown MA. Located on immense acreage. Commissioned 1946. Sold in the 1970's. The new owner asked Breuer's advice and changed the interior colors and substituted the fiber flooring with stone slabs. Sold in 1992 to John and Estelle Kucich. For sale in 2018.
1948 - The Marcel Breuer Cottage, 634 Black Pond Road, on Williams Pond, Wellfleet MA. Built by Ernie Rose. In 1961 Breuer and Beckhard added to Breuer's house a separate studio. The addition, which can function as a separate house with its own kitchenette, bathroom, and fireplace, is connected to the original house by an entry porch/breezeway. Though in essence another complete house, it is comprised of the same materials and details as the main house. Sold in 1992. Sold to Breuer's son, Thomas Breuer. The house was not in good shape as of 2016. Photos by LIFE Magazine.
1948 - The Marcel Breuer House II, aka the Breuer/Robeck House, 122 South Sunset Hill Road, New Canaan CT. Breuer moved to New York City in 1946 and was persuaded by former student Eliot Noyes to build a home in New Canaan in 1947. Unlike other New Canaan Modernist architects, he kept his primary residence in New York City and used the New Canaan house as a vacation retreat. B/W photos by Pedro E. Guerrero. In 1949, the house was featured in Architectural Record.
In 1951, Breuer moved his family to Breuer House III and Russell Roberts became the new owner of Breuer II. In 1964, it was sold to Peter M. and Gertrude M. Robeck. In 1969, a two-car garage was constructed and a swimming pool added in 1971. Between 1985 and 1988, Herbert Beckhard did additions and renovations which doubled the house in size. Sold in 1994 to John R. Horgan.
1948 - The Edmund V. Witalis House, Saddle Rock, Kings Point NY. Unbuilt.
1949 - The New York Museum of Modern Art Exhibition House, aka MOMA House, aka House in the Garden, erected in the sculpture garden at 4 West 54th Street, New York NY. Built by Murphy-Brinkworth Construction Corporation. Commissioned 1948.
The plan was devised for middle-income families with two children. Both indoor and outdoor areas are zoned for different activities. Many of Breuer's innovations are incorporated in this house: the "butterfly roof"; projecting parapets that reach out into space; the tautly desigend staircase; vertical wood siding. The kitchen is placed at the center as "command center", from it one has a clear view into both living-dining area and the children's playroom. Parents live in the balcony end of the house, the children the opposite, visually connected.
Moved to the Rockefeller Estate, aka Kykiut, 200 Lake Road, Pocantico Hills, Tarrytown NY. The MOMA House led to many other commissions for Breuer: the Foote House (1949-1950); the Tilley House in Red Bank NJ (1949-1950).
1949 - The Gyorgy Kepes Cottage, Long Pond Road, Wellfleet, MA. Commissioned 1948. Kepes was an artist and a friend of Breuer's from the Bauhaus. The design was almost the same as Breuer's own cottage nearby. Built by Ernie Rose.
1949 - The Arthur U. and Edith Hooper House Addition I, 5840 Pimlico Road, Baltimore MD. Featured in House and Garden Magazine, April 1951. Sold in 2011 to Mary Azrael. Most of the land was sold off and the house is now surrounded by other houses.
1949 - The Alvin R. Tilley House, 174 Conover Lane, Middletown/Red Bank NJ. Very similar to the MOMA house. Built by Murphy-Brinkworth Construction Corporation. Sold to Kathryn and William McCoy. Sold to Victor Giamanco. Destroyed around 2007. Replaced in 2009 with a 11,000 sf mansion.
1949 - The Tilley House, Middletown NJ. Unbuilt.
1949 - The Jacob (Jack) Marshad House, 204 Cleveland Drive, Croton-on-Hudson NY. According to their daughter, Barbara Marshad Lasky Mitzner, her parents had "seen a house that he had designed in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art. I remember my Dad say that they couldn't get a bank to give them a mortgage because they were afraid of modern design. The house had stone floors throughout most of the rooms and the entire back of the house had large single pane windows (floor to ceiling) which were unheard of at that time. As a child, I remember Mr. Breuer coming over, unannounced to say "Hello" and see how my parents were and to look at the house. While it was not a large house, it was well ahead of it's time. My parents filled it with modern furniture from Herman Miller, Eames, George Nakashima, etc." They sold it in the 1970's. Sold in 1998 to Joseph Biber, who is the third owner, and provided the non-aerial photos.
1949 - The Sidney Wolfson House, aka the Trailer House, County Road 13, 122 Clinton Corners Road, Salt Point NY. Wolfson commissioned Breuer to construct a house using a Spartan Trailer, Mansion Model 30, 1947. He nestled the trailer beneath a pergola. Wolfson in 1960 commissioned Tip Dorsel to build an artist's studio on the property. Photos by Don Freeman. Sold to David Daio and Maureen Conner, who did a restoration, including a larger kitchen, bottom photo. Was a vacation rental. Sold in 2012 to Ashley Mohr and Matthew Mitchell.
1949 - The Arnold and Selma Potter House, 84 Stoneybrook Road, Cape Elizabeth ME. Although the house has since been added onto (a bedroom wing) and the materials stripped back to bare wood from its original coated surface, the form remains intact. Today, the screens are closed in with glass. Sold to Carla Stenberg.
1949 - The Ogden Kniffin House, New Canaan CT. Designed with Eliot Noyes. Destroyed. Photos by Wayne Andrews/Esto, Ben Schnall, and Walter Sanders.
Susan Scott Porter who grew up in the house.
1949 - The Newton J. and Annette Miller Herrick Jr. House, 464 Seeber's Lane, Canajoharie NY. The Herricks admired the Kniffin House and asked Breuer for something similar. The garage was eventually removed and a new three-car version built to the left of the house. A gabled roof eliminated the clerestory windows and eliminated the Modernist vibe. Sold in 2011 to Jeffrey and Brenda Hill.
1950 - The Donald N. and Dallas Clark House, 471 Derby Milford Road, Orange CT. Commissioned 1949. Built by Emerson Daniels. Stone masonry was used for the base and exterior walls. Color photo by David Sundberg/ESTO. Sold in 2014 to Joseph Satin. Sold in 2018 to Anna Dyson.
1950 - The H. Elliott and Caroline Foote House, Chappaqua NY. Commissioned 1949. Status unknown.
1950 - The Dexter Ferry House Cooperative Dormitory, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY.
1950 - The Peter and Karen R. McComb House, 27 Hornbeck Ridge, Poughkeepsie NY. Sold to Arthur and Margery Groten. For sale in 2018.
1950 - The Walter Paepcke House, aka Aspen House, aka Barrailler Farm, aka the Vacation House, Aspen CO. The design consisted of a reinforced concrete wall set between a wall-enclosed area. Unbuilt.
1950 - The John E. and Jessie R. Englund House, 326 Bedford Road, Pleasantville NY. Destroyed by fire in 1960.
1951 - The John and Beverly "B" Hanson House, 4 Beech Hill Road, Lloyd Harbor, Huntington NY. The carport was planned by Breuer for conversion into a three-bedroom, two-bath wing for children at a later date. Another architect did the expansion around 1966. Currrently owned by son Blake Hanson and his wife Lenore. Bottom color photos by Ed Betz.
1951 - The James H. and Nancy M. Smith, Jr. House, aka North Star Ranch, aka North Star Preserve, 74 Northstar Drive, Aspen CO. Breuer got the commission through fellow Bauhaus student and architect Herbert Bayer, who was friends with James Smith. Commissioned 1949. Benjamin Spivak, mechanical engineer; Sigman Farkas, engineer; Sam Huddleston, landscape architect; built by Hendricks.
The site has spectacular views down the valley. According to son Morgan Smith, his parents were not happy with the radiant floors, which didn't work properly, and broken pipes, among other probems. He recalls in general the house was cool-looking but not particularly functional. The Smiths eventually withheld payment; the case went into arbitration, and Smith had to pay Breuer some of the money. They did not part on good terms. Breuer did not finish supervision and the house did not appear in the usual architecture publications. The house was open for a public tour in August 1961.
James Smith gave away most of the considerable acreage for a nature preserve in the 1970's. Over time, the house deteriorated and parts were painted pink, presumably from renters. His daughter Joy Smith sold it in 1997. At some point, the house was destroyed. A 2013 Modernist house was built on the site, bottom photo, designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson with a definite nod to the former house.
1950 - The Edward E. Mills House, Sunset Hill Road, New Canaan CT. Commissioned 1949. Breuer did an addition in 1953. Destroyed. Do you know the address?
1950 - The Gerold Lauck House, 880 Lawrenceville Road, Princeton NJ. Based on the MOMA house exhibited in 1949. In the mid-1980s a second owner added space to its southwest corner, extending the slope of the roof. Sold. Sold to Rafi and Sara Segal, who did a renovation starting in 2008 and lasting several years.
1951 - The Marcel Breuer House III, aka the Breuer/Bratti House, 628 West Road, New Canaan CT. Sometimes referred to as Breuer House II by those who aren't counting his first house in Lincoln MA. 4264 sf. Featured in the New York Times and Holiday Magazine. Sold in 1975 to Gerald O. and Nancy F. Bratti. The Brattis hired Herbert Beckhard to design extensive renovations completed between roughly 1976 and 1982. Those renovations were featured in Architectural Record Houses of 1981, including a one-story children's wing connected to the main house by an enclosed glass-and-stone corridor (1976); a new garage (1976); swimming pool (1980-81); a 27'x29' underground poolhouse/guesthouse (1980-81); and an attached greenhouse (1982).
Sold in 1990 to Edward N. and Jeanne S. Epstein. Sold in 1997 to Arlene H. Stern. Sold in 2004 to development company 628 West Road LLC. Sold in 2005 to Robert and Susan Bishop, saving it from demolition. They removed the addition designed by Beckhard and constructed a freestanding structure designed by Toshiko Mori. Bottom three photos by Michael Biondi. Sale pending as of July 2018.
1951 - The Rufus and Leslie C. Stillman House I, 63 Beecher Lane, Litchfield CT. Commissioned 1950. Breuer designed three houses for Rufus Stillman; this was the first, a hillside house entered from the upper floor. Parents were upstairs; children downstairs. A studio building was added along with a steel framed stair from the living room balcony to a new swimming pool. A screen porch was added. The Stillmans sold it around the time they moved to Stillman II then bought it back years later.
Sold in 2009 to Kenneth Sena and Joseph Mazzaferro who as of 2013 removed the screen porch. Deeded in 2015 to Stillman House LLC, controlled by Sena and Mazzaferro. Bottom photo by Jeremy Bitterman.
1951 - The Howard Pack House, 12 Herkimer Road, Scarsdale NY. Commissioned 1950. The house was later enlarged by Herbert Beckhard by occupying a part of the rectangular platform, so that the L-scheme became a U-scheme. Sold to Dorothy Pack. Color photos by David Sundberg/ESTO.
1951 - The Gustave and Maria Aufricht Porch Addition, Greacen Point Road, Mamaroneck NY. Contractor: August Nelson. Unsure if built.
1952 - The George Robinson House, Redding Ridge CT. Unbuilt.
1952 - The John and Emily (Em) Tibby House, Port Washington NY. It was a 2,500-square-foot variation of the House in the Museum Garden at MoMA. Unbuilt.
1952 - The Harry Irvin Caesar and Doris Porter Caesar Cottage, 147 Interlaken, Lakeville CT. One of the first uses of tension cables, inspired by sailboat rigging, for deck railings. Sculptor Doris Caesar was Breuer patron Leslie Stillman's mother. Sold in 2015 to John McNiff.
1953 - The Paul Calabi House, 205 Emans Road, Lagrangeville NY. Unbuilt. In 1954, Calabi hired Aaron Resnick, a Frank Lloyd Wright associate, for a Modernist house that was built.
1953 - The George and Vera Neumann House, 19 Finney Farm Road, Croton-on-Hudson NY. Bottom photo by Ben Schnall. Indoor pool. Stunning view of the Hudson. Sold in 1983 to Barry Friedman and Patricia Pastor. Sold in 2014 to Kenneth Sena and Joseph Mazzaferro who did a restoration.
1953 - The Crall House, 7670 Old Mill Road, Gates Mills OH. Has been significantly altered. Sold in 2005 to Ann M. and G. Richard Hunter. Sold in 2014 to Joshua D. Davis and Tina Starkey.
1954 - The Edgar Stillman Beach Cottage I, Wellfleet MA. Commissioned 1954. This long house on stilts was made to fit the unusual site. All structural support comes from widely-spaced posts in outside walls with no interior load-bearing partitions. The house was moved back from the dunes and significantly altered.
1954 - The Harnischmacher II House, Schöne Aussicht 53, Wiesbaden, Germany. Replaced the family's earlier house destroyed in WWII.
1955 - The June Halverson Alworth House, aka the Starkey House, 2620 Greysolon Road East, Duluth MN. Soon after finishing the house, Alworth married Robert J. Starkey. Designed with Herbert Beckhard. Built by J. D. Harrold. Fred Dubin was the mechanical engineer. Weisenfeld and Hayward were the structural engineers. Overlooks Lake Superior. Sold to Neal and Iola Vanstrom. B/W photos by Ezra Stoller/ESTO.
1955 - The Robert P. and Marianne Snower House, 6701 Belinder Avenue, Prairie Village KS near Kansas City. Commissioned 1954. Sold for the first time around 2013 to Robert Barnes and Karen Bisset. Restored by Hufft Projects, bottom two photos.
1955 - The Andy and Jamie Gagarin House I, 144 Gallows Lane, Litchfield CT. Commissioned 1953. Designed with Herbert Beckhard. 12,200 sf. B/W photos by Ben Schnall. Bottom photo by Otto Baitz. Has been renovated. Owned in 2001 by Walter Holden. Owned in 2003 by Brian Sullivan. Owned in 2006 by David Gilo. Sold to Mountain Home Properties. Sold in 2010 to Edson Paes. Sold in 2015 to Gallows Lane Ltd. For sale in 2019.
1955 - The Vito Grieco House, 81 Sunset Rock Road, Andover MA. Commissioned 1954. Photos by Ezra Stoller/ESTO and David Sundberg/ESTO. Sold in 1962 to Paul and Ruth Kleven. Sold by Kleven heirs in 2007 to Alfred and Anne Hammond. Sold in 2014 to Andrea Rutherford.
1955 - The McGinnis Apartment, Biltmore Building, New York NY. Address unknown; do you know where it is? Possiby 271 West 47th Street; needs verification.
1955 - The McGinnis House, Charlemont MA near Boston. Status and address unknown; do you know where it is?
1955 - The McGinniss Apartment, Biltmore, New York NY. Status and address unknown; do you know where it is?
1955 - The McGinniss House, Charlmont MA. This was a lodge with a chimney that dated around 1902. Status and address unknown; do you know where it is?
1956 - The Thomas Karsten House, 34 Caveswood Lane, Owings Mill MD. Sold in 1969 to David and Margot Blum.
1956 - The Marion Levy House, 102 Russell Road, Princeton NJ. Commissioned 1952. Deeded to the Ley Family Trust. Sold in 2016 to Charlotte Friedman.
1957 - The George and Marian Laaff House, 81 Reservation Road, Andover MA. 3200 sf. Commissioned 1955. Photos by Ben Schnall. Designed with Herbert Beckhard; Dan Kiley, landscape architect; built by Fichera Construction Company. Featured in 1960 Architectural Record Houses. Sold around 2005 to Keith Vangeison. Sold in 2008 to Richard and Stephanie Sipley.
1957 - The Marshall House, aka the America Builds Exhibition House, aka the Haus Amerika Baut, Berlin, Germany. Status unknown.
1958 - Recreational Apartments, Tanaguarena, Venezuela. Unbuilt.
1958 - The Bill and Mariana Staehelin House, Feldmeilen, near Zurich, Switzerland. Commissioned 1956. Designed with Herbert Beckhard. 9000 sf.Eberhard Eidenbenz was the project associate in Switzerland. 9,000 sf. Featured in Architectural Record, January 1960.
1958 - The Krieger House, 6739 Brigadoon Drive, Bethesda MD. Commissioned 1956. The landscape architect was Dan Kiley. The Kriegers lived there until 1964. Sold in 1990 to John G. Katinas. Placed on the National Register in 2007.
1958 - The John W. and Arlene P. Mellor House, 956 Snyder Hill, Ithaca NY. Bob Gatje was the project architect; Breuer was not really involved in the house. According to their son Mike, Arlene Mellor served as the general contractor coordinating construction. When the couple divorced, Arlene Mellor, moved to Florida. Years later, she would return to Ithaca and rent the house. Sold in 2015 to Gordon and Spencer Woodcock.
1959 - The Roy Halvorson Fishing Camp House, Dryberry Lake Island, Kenora, Ontario Canada. Address unknown; do you know where it is?
1959 - The Arthur and Edith Hooper House II, 1100 Copper Hill Road, Baltimore County MD. Commissioned 1956. Sold in 1996 to Richard North. Middle two photos by Zubin Shroff. Bottom photo by David Sundberg/ESTO.
1959 - The Peter Ustinov House, Vevey, Switzerland. Unbuilt.
1960 - The McMullen House, 716 Wildwood Avenue, Mantolocking NJ. 4400 sf. Designed with Herbert Beckhard. Was extensively renovated, with the flat roof made gabled, bottom photo. Sold to Gilbert and Brenda Alto. Destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
1961 - The Fairview Heights Apartments, aka Fairview Apartments, 100 Fairview Square, Ithaca NY.
1962 - The Frank Kacmarcik House, 2065 Wildview Avenue, St. Paul MN. Designed with Herbert Beckhard. Kacmarcik lived there until 1983 when he joined a monastery. Sold in 2000 to Christopher Monkhouse. Sold to Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Sold in 2008 to Chad Bogdan.
1963 - The Howard Wise Cottage, 445 King Phillip Road, Wellfleet MA. 1600 sf. Designed by Herbert Beckhard. A mirror image of the Breuer Cottage. The breezeway became an important gathering space. Photos by Joseph Molitor. Still owned by the Wise family as of 2017.
1963 - The Van Der Wal House, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Featured in Architectural Record, November 1966. Designed with Hamilton Smith. Reinforced concrete construction. Designed to house a considerable art collection. Unbuilt.
1964 - The De Gunzburg Chalets, Megeve, Haute-Savoie, France. Unbuilt.
1965 - The Jacques and Christina Koerfer House, Moscia, Tessin, Switzerland. Commissioned 1963. Designed with Herbert Beckhard. Overlooks Lake Maggiore. 14,000 sf. Bene Meyer was the structural engineer. Edison Price was the lighting consultant. Construction supervision by Rudolph Frank. Featured in Architectural Record, November 1966. Won a national AIA Award.
1965 - The Rufus and Leslie Stillman House II, 106 Clark Road, Litchfield CT. 9.5 acres. Commissioned 1964. Designed with Herbert Beckhard. Built by the Hirsch Brothers. Sold in 2007 to Barbara Dente and Donna Cristina. Restored in 2008. Sold in 2013 to David Zorrow. Sold in 2017 to Rhonda Sassoon.
1967 - The Arthur and Anne Haft Kreizel Residence Renovation and Addition, 181 Cedar Knoll Drive, Sands Point area of Port Washington NY. 3 acres. Commissioned 1965. Consulting architect, Herbert Beckhard. All chairs were by Breuer. Featured in Architectural Record, July 1968. Photo by Joseph Molitor. Sold around 1970 to Jules V. Lane, still owner as of 2017. Dramatically altered. For sale in 2018.
1969 - The Soriano House, 10 Close Road, Greenwich CT. Commissioned 1967. Designed with Tician Papachristou. Has been greatly expanded. Sold to Judith Goldfarb.
1969 - The Bert and Phyllis Geller House II, 339 Ocean Avenue, Lawrence NY. 4500 sf. The house is behind 333 Ocean Drive. Commissioned 1967. Designed with Herbert Beckhard. Featured in Architectural Record, July 1970. Zoldos and Meagher were the engineers. Built by Barnes Building. Azzarone Construction did the concrete. Interiors by Breuer and Beckhard. Landscape architect, Klonsky Associates. Juan Montoya designed an addition with a curved roof, bottom two photos, in 1980. Sold to Joel Boyarsky, who also owned 333 at one time (see entry below).
1969 - The Arnold T. and Rochelle Rosenberg House, Georgica Close Road, East Hampton NY. Commissioned 1968. Designed with Herbert Beckhard and Jeff Vandenberg. Photos by Joseph Molitor. Sold in 1987 to Thomas Flynn who expanded the house.
1969 - The Picker House, Lake Carmel, Kent NY. This is possibly the house. Needs verification.
1973 - The Louis Sayer House, aka Saier House, aka Maison Sayer, La Huderie, 14950 Glanville-Calvados, France. Commissioned 1972. Designed with Italian architect Mario Jossa, it was the realization of the unbuilt Ustinov House in Vevey, Switzerland. Featured in Architectural Record, August 1977. Built by Enterprise Marion. Engineers, Cabinet Dufromont.
1973 - The Andrew (Andy) S. Gagarin House II, 108 Gallows Road, Litchfield CT. Just west of Gagarin I. As of 2011 still owned by the Gagarin family.
1974 - The Rufus and Leslie Stillman House III, approximately 50 Clark Road, Litchfield CT. Commissioned 1973. Breuer's Wellfleet Cottage was duplicated as a guest house on the property, (black walled building, bottom photo). Built by Rufus Stillman.
1974 - The Rufus and Leslie Stillman Cottage, aka Roman Cottage, 95 Wheeler Road, Litchfield CT. Built by Rufus Stillman. There has been an addition, not by Breuer, and a new pool. Sold in 1976 to Toby Moffett. Sold in 1998. Sold in 2004 to Kenneth and Joseph Mazzaferro. For sale by auction in 2018.
1975 - The Andrew (Andy) Gagarin House at Big Sur CA, aka Gagarin II even though this was the third house for Gagarin. 600 sf. Designed by Herbert Beckhard and Thomas Hayes but frequently cited (wrongly) as a Breuer. Gagarin died in 2002.
1978 - ITT Palm Coast Condominiums, Flagler Beach FL. Unbuilt. Overseen by Beckard.
1979 - The Joel Boyarsky House Renovation, 333 Ocean Avenue, Lawrence NY. Original house 1963. Sold to Morton and Marlene Kriger.
1980 - The Arthur and Francine Cohen House, 284 Redmond Road, South Orange NJ. Commissioned 1971. Beckhard was the project architect. Still owned by the Cohens.
1981 - The Amando and Maria Garces House, Cali, Colombia. Unsure if built. The partner in charge was Tician Papachristou.
1984 - The Laurie and Peter Schwartz House, 36 Beachside Avenue, Westport CT. The design is attributed to Breuer, who was dead by that point; the project architect was Herbert Beckhard. As of 2011 still owned by the Schwartz's.
Sources include: Archives of American Art, New Canaan CT NTHP Breuer Archive, Marcel Breuer: Buildings and Projects;Sun and Shadow: The Philosophy of an Architect, Virtual Globetrotting, Smithsonian Archive of American Art; Architecture without Rules: Houses of Breuer and Beckhard; Peter McMahon; 2G magazine's Marcel Breuer American Houses edition; Breuer Archives at Syracuse; Rochelle Rosenberg.