Hammer Time

With the help of Herzog & de Meuron, Sotheby's adapts a Marcel Breuer landmark into the auction house of tomorrow

- SAM COCHRAN

There are landmarks the public instantly adores and others to which their eyes and hearts must adjust.

Take Marcel Breuer's design for the Whitney Museum of American Art. When it first opened in 1966, architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable—though notably a fan herself—called it “the most disliked building in New York.” But tastes evolve, and in no time the city rightfully embraced this Brutalist marvel, later watching with protective anticipation as the Whitney's move downtown made way for the Met Breuer followed by the Frick's temporary but transcendent residency.