As part of the Greening the modern preservation movement: Bauhaus at the brink series, Anthony Hiti, chair of the historic resources committee of the AIA, Cleveland Chapter will review the history and significance of the Breuer Tower and discuss the challenges of preserving buildings of the recent past.  He will also update those in attendance with the latest developments on the building's fate in his edifying talk, "The Cleveland Trust Tower - is it worth saving?" This is an opportunity to hear and see the biography of Marcel Breuer and see the breadth of his work from an early age through the Cleveland buildings, Ameritrust and Cleveland Museum of Art, two of his last.

The Cleveland Trust (Ameritrust) Tower, designed by Marcel Breuer, is seriously threatened with demolition in order to make way for the proposed Cuyahoga County administration complex.  In his illustrated (PowerPoint) presentation, Anthony W. Hiti, AIA, will review the history and significance of the Breuer Tower and discuss the challenges of preserving buildings of the recent past.  He will also update those in attendance with the latest developments on the building's fate. 

Completed in 1971, the Cleveland Trust Tower is one of only two Cleveland area structures to be designed by the world-renowned architect Marcel Breuer (the other being the 1971 addition to the Cleveland Museum of Art).  Born in 1902 in Hungary, Breuer taught at the famed Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, worked in London, and later immigrated to the United States, where he worked as an associate professor at Harvard University along with Walter Gropius.  He operated a New York practice from 1946 until his retirement in 1976.  Breuer is recognized as one of the founders of the Modern Movement in architecture and was a leading proponent of the International Style.  Breuer’s Cleveland Trust Tower, designed with Hamilton Smith and local associates Flynn, Dalton, van Dijk & Partners, set precedent for corporate office building design in the 1970’s.

Anthony W. Hiti, AIA is a principal architect at Herman Gibans Fodor, Inc. - Architects.  He has been the architect and designer for several historic preservation, senior living and multi-family housing projects.  Mr. Hiti attended the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and received his B. Arch from the University of Cincinnati in 1989.  He is the chair of AIA Cleveland’s Historic Resources Committee, is a member of the Charles F. Schweinfurth Trust Committee of the Cleveland Public Library and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Ursuline College Graduate Program in Historic Preservation.  Mr. Hiti is also a Trustee of the Cleveland Restoration Society where he chairs their Advocacy and Public Policy Committee.

For more information, email millerbowen [at] adelphia [dot] net.

Brought to you by Doty & Miller Architects, D.H. Ellison Co., Peter Lawson Jones, Recent Past Preservation Network, Richard Fleischman Architects, Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Robert Maschke Architects, Inc., Process Creative Studios Inc., Jim Rokakis, Schmidt Copeland Parker Stevens with assistance from Cleveland Cinematheque, Cleveland Institute of Art, Judson Manor, The Sculpture Center, Intermuseum Conservation Association, AIA Cleveland, Kent State University Art History, Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, Cleveland Artists Foundation, GreenCityBlueLake, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Studio Techne Architects

Location