St John's Abbey, Marcel Breuer, 1958-61

[SDR]

https://saintjohnsabbey.org/church

https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MN-01-145-0007-01

Tonight's PBS NewsHour ends with a story about an addition to the pipe organ in Breuer's powerful concrete church.

https://www.pbs.org/video/pipe-dreams-1668550367/

There's not a recognizable note of music in the piece, much less a scrap of Bach---but a peek at the church and another Breuer building on the Collegeville, MN campus (see lower right of screen during the aerial-footage opening shot) are to be had, as well as some impressive musical craftsmanship and a bit of woodworking to boot.

S

[Matt2]

Kept expecting the report to note the architect, but not one mention of Bruer. I have to say the interior looked very bunker like with all that exposed concrete.

[Tom]

Breuer did a bunch of buildings on this campus,
In addition to the big Abbey church, there is a library, a chapter house, a monastery, and a few others I think.

[Roderick Grant]

7 in all,

[SDR]

Thanks. Is there an online source showing that suite of works ? NC Modern, maybe ?

S

[Roderick Grant]

I found nothing. The campus is private, so Google Maps doesn't help much.

[Tom]

Here we go:

https://www.csbsju.edu/sju-archives/sju ... ubuildings

Looks like he did 10 buildings there in all ( if you count Bernard, Boniface, and Patrick as three distinct buildings).
Plus a sculpture.
Time frame is 20 years from 1955 -75

[SDR]

Thanks for that, Tom---a great deal of data and images are thus released into our avid grasp.

The very first bibliographic link following the story of Breuer's first building there, leads to this single tantalizing page (if not to the pages listed in the link ?). https://cdm.csbsju.edu/digital/collecti ... 1669077703

But everything I've encountered there so far is enlargeable, and very promising. The brief explanation of the form of the church---as a folded plate structure, and as a reference to the "the (ancient) basics" of architecture---is revelatory.

Now, what does the acronym OSB mean in this context---that is, as an addendum to a person's name ?

S

[Tom]

Don't know about OSB.
But OP after a name means that person is an ordained Jesuit. OP means Order of Preachers.
My guess is that OSB is something similar.

[Tom]

Just read thru the above red link.
OSB - might mean, Order of Saint Benedict.

https://saintjohnsabbey.org/osb

[Tom]

Yep,

https://www.osb.org/

Scrolling down on this website features the Mount Angel Monastery in Oregon. They have a library by Alvar Aalto.
Did not remember it was Benedictine.

[Tom]

Correction:
OP (Order of Preachers) is Dominican not Jesuit.