Transitional Moments: Marcel Breuer, W.C. Vaughan & Co. and the Bauhaus In America

Architect Marcel Breuer’s House in the Museum Garden, now considered one of the most influential architecture exhibitions of the 20th century, was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art and built in their garden in 1949. Exhibited to record attendance, the house featured the updated Bauhaus prescriptions for modern living―an airy, informal combination living room/dining room and a pass-through kitchen―and was intended to inspire the future of American housing.

The project featured custom hardware produced by W.C. Vaughan in collaboration with Breuer, which included everything from mahogany door knobs to cabinet hinges. Vaughan also supplied hardware for Breuer’s iconic Frank House, the Geller House, Breuer’s own houses in Massachusetts and Connecticut plus houses by Walter Gropius, Philip Johnson and other modernist masters.

An essay by historian Robert Wiesenberger, historical black-and-white and color photographs by Ezra Stoller plus shop drawings by Vaughan of the hardware complete this deeply engaging and important architectural publication.