A master of Modernism whose architectural legacy includes a range of monumental concrete structures around the world, Marcel Breuer remains divisive among Brutalism?s admirers and detractors decades after his death. From the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York to the vaguely dystopian IBM headquarters in Paris, Breuer?s work is alternately described as majestic and depressing; cold and clinical to some, and peacefully minimalist to others. Regardless of how you feel about concrete architecture in general and Brutalism in particular, Breuer?s buildings are emblematic of this architectural style. Here are 14 of his most notable creations, as preserved by Syracuse University?s Marcel Breuer Digital Archive.
St. John?s Abbey, Minnesota
After completing a series of modernist residential projects in the 1930s and ?40s, Breuer moved on to work on a far more ambitious and awe-inspiring scale, starting with the stunning St. John?s Abbey and University in Minnesota. The cast-in-place concrete wonder features a towering bell banner shielding the church?s honeycombed facade. Breuer also designed a number of buildings on the St. John?s University campus, including a dormitory hall (bottom photo.)
Whitney Art Museum, New York City

One critic of Breuer?s 1966 building on the genteel Upper East Side of Manhattan called it ?one of the most aggressive, arrogant buildings in New York.? An inverted ziggurat, the structure is undeniably bold. The Hungarian-born, Bauhaus-trained a...