As an architecture teacher, the emigrant Walter Gropius found his new place of work in the USA at Harvard in 1937. It was not until ten years later that he had the opportunity to establish his own office as an architect. Together with seven young partners, he founded the architectural collective "The Architects Collaborative." Here, the idea of teamwork was central, and the firm soon attracted a highly motivated staff from around the world. The think tank in Cambridge grew into an internationally operating large office that designed and built in a brutalist style, long before anyone referred to it as such. TAC also built in Germany: for example, a residential block in the Hansaviertel in Berlin, Gropiusstadt, and the Bauhaus Archive; in the Franconian town of Selb, the Rosenthal porcelain factory. The author was an employee at TAC between 1962 and 1964. He remained in contact with Gropius and his former colleagues through letters and regular meetings thereafter.