He is widely known for his uninhibited, sculptural beach houses in the coastal regions of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut during the 1950s and '60s, as well as for his indirect role in the 1959 Kitchen Debate between Richard Nixon (then Vice President) and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, which began at an exhibit Geller had helped design for the American National Exhibition in Moscow.
Geller worked with the prominent firm of American industrial and graphic designer Raymond Loewy where his projects ranged widely—from the design of shopping centers and department stores across the United States, to the Windows on the World restaurant atop the World Trade Center[1] and the logo of New York-based department store Lord & Taylor.
[1][2] After designing a beach house for Loewy's director of public relations,[3] Geller was featured in The New York Times and began receiving notoriety for his own work.
Between 1955 and 1974,[4] Geller produced a series of modest but distinctive vacation homes, many published in popular magazines including Life, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire.
It should live with it both in scale and some sort of human factor.Geller was born in Brooklyn on April 17, 1924, to Olga and Joseph Geller, an artist and sign painter who had emigrated from Hungary in 1905.
[7] Architectural historian Alastair Gordon reported that as a sign painter Joseph Geller designed the logo for Boar's Head Provision Company, still in use today.
During World War II, Geller served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1942–45) and was inadvertently exposed to a toxic chemical agent, suffering medical consequences for the remainder of his life.
[18] All-State later hired Loewy and Geller to design Leisurama, homes marketed at Macy's and built on Long Island — leveraging the press coverage from the Russian exhibition.
[28] Architectural historian Alastair Gordon said the house "is one of the most important examples of experimental design built during the postwar period – not just on Long Island but anywhere in the United States.
[3] Alastair Gordan, architectural historian, called the one-room house a "reducto ad absurdum version of the post-war weekend aesthetic.
"[3][29] Geller's architectural designs on Long Island were featured in a 1999 exhibition called Weekend Utopia: The Modern Beach House on Eastern Long Island, 1960–1973, at the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, New York[23] — and in 2005 at an exhibit entitled Imagination: The Art and Architecture of Andrew Geller at New York's Municipal Art Society.