March 7, 2008

Marcel Breuer at Saint John's

The architect used Gothic inspiration to create a Modernist campus

Photograph by Greg Becker

The Abbey Church of St. John the Baptist, with its cantilevered concrete bell tower, was Marcel Breuer's signiture building at Saint John's U.

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Photograph by Greg Becker

The Abbey Church of St. John the Baptist, with its cantilevered concrete bell tower, was Marcel Breuer's signiture building at Saint John's U.

By Scott Carlson

The Gothic churches of centuries ago, with their soaring, elaborately decorated facades and vaulted interiors, meant to awe those who approach and to inspire them to envision something bigger than this world. The buildings conveyed God in the design, God in the stone carvings, and God in the engineering that held the monuments aloft, defying gravity.

A visitor to Saint John's University and Saint John's Abbey, in north-central Minnesota, sees something of that Gothic heritage while