Potsdamer Platz
1929 | Marcel Breuer
In 1928 architects were invited to enter a competition to rethink traffic patterns in Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, an intersection of several of Berlin's major boulevards and subway lines. Potsdamer Platz had emerged as a symbol of the modern metropolis—a place of movement, interchange, and speed—but it had also created a thorny circulation problem. Europe's first traffic light was installed there, but still the site cried out for innovative traffic planning. Breuer imagined a solution in which architecture and traffic design were integral. He combined a cloverleaf configuration of roadways with multilevel pedestrian walkways and densely packed modern apartments and offices that spanned the roads. He proposed creating water features in the otherwise unusable residual space at the center of the cloverleaf, imagining a whole new dimension of the urban picturesque. This drawing by the twenty-six-year-old recent graduate of the Bauhaus has only recently come to light.
Gallery label from 75 Years of Architecture at MoMA, 2007.
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer, the Hungarian-American designer whose career touched nearly every aspect of three-dimensional design, from tiny utensils to the biggest buildings. Breuer moved quickly at the Bauhaus from student to teacher and then ultimately the head of his own firm. Best known for his iconic chair designs, Breuer often worked in tandem with other designers, developing a thriving global practice that eventually cemented his reputation as one of the most important architects of the modern age. Always the innovator, Breuer was eager to both test the newest advances in technology and to break with conventional forms, often with startling results.
Marcel Breuer, the Hungarian-American designer whose career touched nearly every aspect of three-dimensional design, from tiny utensils to the biggest buildings. Breuer moved quickly at the Bauhaus from student to teacher and then ultimately the head of his own firm. Best known for his iconic chair designs, Breuer often worked in tandem with other designers, developing a thriving global practice that eventually cemented his reputation as one of the most important architects of the modern age. Always the innovator, Breuer was eager to both test the newest advances in technology and to break with conventional forms, often with startling results.
In 1928, Breuer moved to Berlin, to begin his own architectural practice; in 1934, he designed the Doldertal Apartments for the well-known Swiss architectural historian Sigfried Giedion in Zurich. Breuer moved to London in 1936, at the behest of Walter Gropius, who was concerned for his safety during the Nazi occupation. Here, he found work with Jack Pritchard of the Isokon Company, one of the earliest champions of modern design in Britain, where he designed the "Long" chair predominantly from plywood. The following year, Breuer left Europe permanently to join Gropius in teaching architecture at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; many of their students would themselves go on to become legends in the field, such as I.M. Pei, Paul Rudolph, and Philip Johnson. From 1938 to 1941 Breuer and Gropius collaborated on various architectural projects throughout the northeastern United States, including each of the architects' own houses as well as the Pennsylvania state exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.
Breuer finally moved to New York City in 1946, where he would work for the remainder of his life, and continued the collaborative efforts that had marked much of his career, mostly with Hamilton Smith. Over the next thirty-five years his practice expanded considerably; although he had worked mostly on small-scale domestic structures before the war, Breuer increasingly took on larger and more diverse institutional projects. He sought and regularly received internationally-renowned commissions, including the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre in Bronxville, New York (1952); St. John's Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota (1953-61); the De Bijenkorf department store, Rotterdam (1955-57); the headquarters for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Washington, D.C. (1963-68); and the Atlanta Central Library (1969-80). He retired in 1976, the same year that he was awarded the Grande Medaille d'Or by the French Academie of Architecture.
Biography label from The Art Story
Breuer finally moved to New York City in 1946, where he would work for the remainder of his life, and continued the collaborative efforts that had marked much of his career, mostly with Hamilton Smith. Over the next thirty-five years his practice expanded considerably; although he had worked mostly on small-scale domestic structures before the war, Breuer increasingly took on larger and more diverse institutional projects. He sought and regularly received internationally-renowned commissions, including the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre in Bronxville, New York (1952); St. John's Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota (1953-61); the De Bijenkorf department store, Rotterdam (1955-57); the headquarters for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Washington, D.C. (1963-68); and the Atlanta Central Library (1969-80). He retired in 1976, the same year that he was awarded the Grande Medaille d'Or by the French Academie of Architecture.
Biography label from The Art Story
Krohn, C. (2010). Das ungebaute Berlin: Stadtkonzepte im 20. Jahrhundert (Pre-Published Exhibition Catalog). DOM; University of Santa Barbara.
Aménagement des places et carrefours suivant les données nouvelles de la circulation—Marcel Breuer Digital Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2024, from https://breuer.syr.edu/xtf/view?docId=mets/31966.mets.xml;query=potsdamer%20platz;brand=breuer
Marcel Breuer. Potsdamer Platz Project, Berlin, Germany, Axonometric. 1929 | MoMA. (n.d.). The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved April 16, 2024, from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/86501
Marcel Breuer Architecture, Bio, Ideas. (n.d.). The Art Story. Retrieved April 16, 2024, from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/breuer-marcel/
Plans (drawings)—Marcel Breuer Digital Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2024, from https://breuer.syr.edu/xtf/view?docId=mets/3407.mets.xml;query=potsdamer%20platz;brand=breuer
Platzgestaltung auf grund neuer verkehrsregelung. Beispiel 1. Postdamer platz. - Marcel Breuer Digital Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2024, from https://breuer.syr.edu/xtf/view?docId=mets/1925.mets.xml;query=potsdamer%20platz;brand=breuer
Potsdamer Platz—Marcel Breuer Digital Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2024, from https://breuer.syr.edu/xtf/view?docId=mets/37160.mets.xml;query=potsdamer%20platz;brand=breuer