The Boettcher Building’s new windows. Photography by Brent Moss.
The Boettcher Building’s new windows. Photography by Brent Moss.

April 6, 2022

Words: Michael Lassell

Herbert Bayer’s Mid-Century Buildings at the Aspen Institute in Colorado Undergo a Refresh

In 1949, Herbert Bayer—one of the Bauhaus’s most influential students, teachers, and proselytizers, and creator of the school’s hallmark sans-serif typeface—moved from New York to Aspen, Colorado, which Walter Paepcke was reinventing as a world-class ski destination. The industrialist also envisioned a multicultural think tank and asked Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius to design its plan. Gropius declined but recommended Bayer, who became the Aspen Institute’s resident architect and graphic designer for 25 years. Two of Bayer’s signature buildings have now been imaginatively brought into the 21st century.

Bayer’s last Aspen project was the 1973 Boettcher Building, a cluster of octagonal seminar rooms arranged around an open courtyard. The task of salvaging the building was assigned to Rowland+Broughton, an Aspen-based firm known for historic preservation as well as new builds. “The open courtyard was just a snow collector in winter, and in summer you really wanted to go all the way out into nature,” R+B cofounding principal Sarah Broughton says. “We enclosed the courtyard to function as the nucleus of the building and preserved the building using its own vocabulary in a way that allows for further evolution.”

Bayer on staff at the Bauhaus in 1927, photographed by Irene Bayer-Hecht, his first wife.
Bayer on staff at the Bauhaus in 1927, photographed by Irene Bayer-Hecht, his first wife. Image courtesy of Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.

In 1954, Bayer designed three International Style “chalets” for the Institute’s Aspen Meadows Resort. To reinvent the interiors, the institute hired Michael Suomi, who recently founded his own firm, Suomi Design Works, after decades in the hospitality arena, including heading up one of the four firms that transformed Eero Saarinen’s 1962 TWA terminal at JFK airport in Queens, New York, into the Interior Design Best of Year Award–winning TWA Hotel.

“The interiors of the resort’s 98 guest suites had been maintained, but they were redesigned in 1990,” he says. “Visually and conceptually, they were disconnected from the rest of the campus.” Suomi used “legacy” pieces of furniture and finishes sympathetic to Bauhaus origins. “I start a project like this by fully understanding its history and the people who came before me, because I’m just building on what they’ve already done. My goal was to have the guests come in and say, ‘Oh, this feels like it belongs here.’”

The 1964 Aspen Institute music tent, designed by Herbert Bayer (1900-1985) to replace the 1949 original by Eero Saarinen, and itself replaced in 2000.
The 1964 Aspen Institute music tent, designed by Herbert Bayer (1900-1985) to replace the 1949 original by Eero Saarinen, and itself replaced in 2000. Photography by Ferenc Berko.
Rowland+Broughton’s realization of the Boettcher Building’s Chromatic Gates, designed by Bayer but previously existing only as maquettes.
Rowland+Broughton’s realization of the Boettcher Building’s Chromatic Gates, designed by Bayer but previously existing only as maquettes. Photography by Brent Moss.
Herbert Bayer
The Austrian-born, Bauhaus-trained architect and graphic designer in his studio at the Dorland advertising agency in Berlin around 1933. Image courtesy of Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.
A 1949 ski poster featuring Bayer’s Aspen-leaf logo.
A 1949 ski poster featuring Bayer’s Aspen-leaf logo. Image courtesy of Herbert Bayer © 2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / Aspen Historical Society, Bayer Collection.
A geodesic dome built by R. Buckminster Fuller in the 1950’s as a pool canopy at the Aspen Institute’s Health Center, now used as a meeting space.
A geodesic dome built by R. Buckminster Fuller in the 1950’s as a pool canopy at the Aspen Institute’s Health Center, now used as a meeting space. Image courtesy of Aspen Historical Society, Durrance Collection.
One of the resort’s three International Style buildings.
One of the resort’s three International Style buildings. Photography by David Mitchell.
The Boettcher Building’s new windows.
The Boettcher Building’s new windows. Photography by Brent Moss.
The renovated Boettcher Building’s skylit central hub, formerly an open courtyard.
The renovated Boettcher Building’s skylit central hub, formerly an open courtyard. Photography by Brent Moss.
A guest room in the Aspen Meadows Resort, designed by Bayer in 1954 and renovated this year by Michael Suomi Design.
A guest room in the Aspen Meadows Resort, designed by Bayer in 1954 and renovated this year by Michael Suomi Design. Photography by David Mitchell.
The guest room dining area, featuring American-walnut tambour wallcovering, a Harry Bertoia chair, Greta von Nessen pendant fixture, and images by Bauhaus photographer Ferenc Berko.
The guest room dining area, featuring American-walnut tambour wallcovering, a Harry Bertoia chair, Greta von Nessen pendant fixture, and images by Bauhaus photographer Ferenc Berko. Photography by David Mitchell.
A vibrant new work of art, com­missioned for the renovation, combining multiple Bayer motifs.
A vibrant new work of art, com­missioned for the renovation, combining multiple Bayer motifs. Photography by David Mitchell.

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