The work of famed modernist architect Marcel Breuer is not immediately identifiable with the pastoral. His projects, ranging from New York City’s former Whitney Museum of American Art to the UNESCO Headquarters building in Paris (with Pier Luigi Nervi and Bernard Zehrfuss) among countless other edifices, were often monumental in scale and hewn of form-worked concrete in the Brutalist style. In stark contrast to those structures is the architect’s summer cottage, which he designed and built, within the sanded forests of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a world away from the distractions of urban life and fame. The home was completed in 1949, and the successive decades have taken their toll on the property, even though the architect’s son, Tamas Breuer, now 80, has continued to periodically spend time there and maintain its contents—which includes an art collection, books, and personal photographs. Now, with its impending sale by Tamas, the Cape Cod Modern House Trust (CCMHT) is leading a campaign to raise at least $1.4 million to purchase the cottage and its contents and embark on the restoration of both the structure and its grounds. Although the property is under contract to the CCMHT, in lieu of reaching that fundraising goal, it could be purchased privately, and demolished.
The house, which includes a studio pictured here, is situated in a forested area of Wellfleet; a potential demolition poses a risk to the local ecosystem. Photo by Aaron Binaco, courtesy CCMHT
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