with Marta Snow, AIA
The Breuer Guest Suites are ten apartments that are part of the Collegeville Institute, operated by the University of Saint John’s. SALA’s work included renovations of each suite, including kitchens, bathrooms, mechanical systems, interior furnishings, selection of housewares, restoration of parquet flooring, and restoration of the exterior stone walls. No walls or openings were moved in the renovation process.
The ecumenical studies complex was designed by Marcel Breuer as his designs for the University and Abbey were being built in the 1960s. This was to be a place where diverse leaders of faith and religious scholars could gather for discourse and contemplation. Over 50 years later, while the Collegeville Institute continued to provide ecumenical programs, the buildings themselves had seen only modest upkeep, and the interiors were worn and in need of updates and improved functionality. The intent of the Saint John’s Design Committee, led by the monks, was to adhere to Breuer’s spirit, while understanding that the spaces required adaptation to contemporary lifestyles and code standards. In that light, the brief given to our design team was not one of historic preservation, but adaptive re-design within a tightly controlled range of design choices, each of which required approval by the monk’s Design Committee.
Our approach began with thoroughly researching Breuer’s career from the Bauhaus, to collaborations with Walter Gropius, to his Brutalist work, including Saint John’s Abbey and elsewhere. From this we developed a guiding document for our client that outlined a shared understanding of the importance of Breuer’s legacy, and developed specific project goals and guiding principles with which to achieve those goals.
A quote from Breuer, from a lecture at Harvard, resonated with our project ethos: “One of the most embarrassing problems of ours: what to choose from all that is offered. To value and to select the right things is a vital discipline. This is what I would call the direction of thought, the direction of work progress, and the direction of contemporary mentality. From many things you are supposed to reach -to select- the most purposeful, the right one, the one which is meaningful for the human existence.”
Construction by Breitbach Construction Co.
Photographs by Troy Thies
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