Breuer’s office began working on the comprehensive plan for Saint John’s Abbey and University Complex in May of 1953. In 1964, Breuer and his associate, Hamilton Smith, designed a Science Building and auditorium on the east side of the plaza bordered by the library to the north and the abbey church to the south. The building housed numerous departments and their laboratories: physics and geology on the lower floor, chemistry and mathematics on the ground floor, biology and astronomy on the upper floor. Many of the floors contained laboratory spaces in the center of the floor plate surrounded by offices and classrooms. Stair towers projected from the northeast and southwest corners of the otherwise rectangular building. The facades combined details of other buildings on campus, including faceted modular concrete panels and screens of terracotta flue tiles.