Projects by Name

In September of 1950, Breuer was named "Consulting Architect for Exterior Design" for a new branch of the department store Abraham and Straus to be located in Hempstead, Long Island. Breuer created a flat-roofed, two-story building to which an additional two floors could be added if needed. Each façade was detailed in a different way, but most of the façades featured fieldstone walls, pierced by display windows, on the first floor. The upper level was faced with plain or textured brick, in which bricks were recessed from the plane of the façade. The main entrance was indicated by a recessed area, clad in terrazzo with two round columns rising the full height of the building and framing glass doors. Breuer shaded the glass display windows with a canopy and placed an American flag above each one. The store opened to the public on February 28, 1952 and closed forty-years later. By then, the contrasting materials and textures that defined Breuer's façade had been replaced.