Richard Neutra

For more information on Richard Joseph Neutra, visit Britannica.com.

(b Vienna, 8 April 1892; d Wuppertal, 10 April 1970). American architect and writer of Austrian birth. He entered the Technische Hochschule in Vienna in 1911 but did not graduate until 1917 after serving in the Austrian army. In Vienna he became well acquainted with the work of Otto Wagner and attended many of the weekly meetings held by Adolf Loos. In 1912 he met Rudolph Schindler, and, like him and like many other Europeans at the time, he was deeply affected by the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The lifework of the Austrian-born American architect Richard Joseph Neutra (1892-1970) was an attempt to combine the technical precision of the International Style with other elements more organic to American architectural traditions.

Richard Neutra was born in Vienna on April 8, 1892. He trained at the Technische Hochschule, receiving his diploma in 1917. While there he was greatly influenced by the buildings and writings of a contemporary Viennese architect, Adolf Loos, one of the pioneers of the modern movement in Europe. Loos introduced Neutra to innovations occurring in American architecture, particularly the experiments of Louis Sullivan and the Chicago school. Neutra's interest in American architecture grew when he became familiar with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

In 1918 Neutra went to Switzerland, working as a landscape architect and city planner. In 1921 he moved to Lukenwalde, Germany, to serve in the Municipal Building Office. The next year he became associated with Erich Mendelsohn in the design of the Business Center in Haifa, Palestine. Neutra emigrated to the United States in 1923, joining the Chicago firm of Holabird and Roche. At the same time he met Frank Lloyd Wright and began working at Wright's Wisconsin home, "Taliesin." Three years later Neutra moved to Los Angeles, setting up a partnership with another Vienna-born architect, Rudolph Schindler.

As his first major American commission, Neutra designed a home for Richard Lovell (1927-1929) in Los Angeles. Its clear-cut lines and planar surfaces are suggestive of the International Style, but the placement of the building on its mountain site echoes Wright's concept of organic setting. The house is constructed of thin steel elements cantilevered over a ravine; the entire structure is supported from above by steel cables. Interestingly, the smooth white treatment of the walls and the use of broad areas of glass may have influenced Wright himself in his design for the kaufmann House (1936) in Bear Run, Pa.

During the 1930s Neutra continued to express the box-like forms of the International Style in his own personal idiom. For example, in both the Josef von Sternberg House (1936) in the San Fernando Valley and the Corona School (1934-1935) in Bell, Calif., he combined many of the technical approaches associated with the International Style with the use of unusual building materials such as native stone and redwood.

The most significant of Neutra's projects in the early 1940s was Channel Heights, a government-sponsored housing development in San Pedro, Calif. Neutra was responsible for the entire project, from the overall plan to the specific details such as redwood trim. Although the units were identical, he succeeded in individualizing them by varying the placement of each house in accordance with its particular terrain. Neutra designed a number of private homes in southern California. Among them was the Kaufmann (now Lisk) House in Palm Springs; here by brilliantly integrating the house with its desert site, Neutra reached a high point in his domestic style.

In 1949 an expanding practice prompted Neutra to form a partnership with Robert E. Alexander. Although the firm continued to design domestic structures, it concentrated on larger, public commissions, designing, for example, office buildings and university libraries. A motel complex at Malibu Beach, Calif. (1955), which overlooks the Pacific, is characteristic of Neutra's ambition to express as vividly and simply as possible the relationship between a structure and its natural surroundings. By successfully maintaining structural clarity while relating a building to its site, Neutra achieved a uniquely personal style. He died on April 16, 1970, in Wuppertal, West Germany.

Further Reading

Useful for an understanding of Neutra's work is his early theoretical essay, Survival through Design (1954). The best work on him is Esther McCoy, Richard Neutra (1960). Bruno Zevi, Richard Neutra (1954), is a good, secondary biography and critique. A résumé of Neutra's projects and designs through the 1950s is in Willy Boesiger, ed., Richard Neutra: Buildings and Projects (3 vols., 1966).

Vienna-born American architect, he worked with Loos in Vienna (1912–14) and Mendelsohn in Berlin (1921–3). In 1923 he emigrated to the USA, working first with Holabird and Roche, which gave him material for Wie Baut Amerika? (How Does America Build?—1927). He met Sullivan and F. L. Wright, and in 1925 formed an association in Los Angeles with Schindler. Together they built the Jardinette Apartments (1927), using reinforced concrete, cantilevered balconies, and horizontal strips of metal-framed windows. It was one of the first International Modernist buildings in America, and was followed by the steel-framed Lovell ‘Health House’, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles (1927–9), largely made of components selected from catalogues. It made Neutra's name.

He became a visiting critic at the Bauhaus and represented America at CIAM. His most productive years as an architect were the 1930s and 1940s, when he designed several houses for famous Hollywood names (e.g. Josef von Sternberg House, San Fernando Valley, CA, 1935–6—destroyed). The Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, CA (1946–7), was influenced by Mies van der Rohe. Later works included the US Embassy, Karachi, Pakistan (1959), his own house, Silverlake, Los Angeles (1932–3 and 1963–4), and the Los Angeles Hall of Records (1961). He published Survival Through Design (1954) and Life and Shape (1962).

Bibliography

• Boesiger (1966)
• Drexler & Hines (eds.) (1982)
• Hines (1994)
• Lamprecht (2000)
• Leatherbarrow (2000)
• McCoy (1960, 1979)
• Neutra (1954, 1962)
• Placzek (ed.) (1982)
• Spade (1971b)
• Jane Turner (2000)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Richard Neutra on the cover of Time Magazine, August 15, 1949.

Richard Joseph Neutra (April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) is considered one of modernism's most important architects.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Legacy 3 Selected works 4 Publications by Neutra 5 Notes 6 Other sources 7 External links

Biography

Neutra was born in Vienna on April 8 1892. He studied under Adolf Loos at the Technical University of Vienna, was influenced by Otto Wagner, and worked for a time in Germany in the studio of Erich Mendelsohn. He moved to the United States by 1923 and became a naturalized citizen in 1929. Neutra worked briefly for Frank Lloyd Wright before accepting an invitation from his close friend and university companion Rudolf Schindler to work and live communally in Schindler's Kings Road House in California.

In California, he became celebrated for rigorously geometric but airy structures that represented a West Coast variation on the mid-century modern residence. In the early 1930s, Neutra's Los Angeles practice trained several young architects who went on to independent success, including Gregory Ain, Harwell Hamilton Harris, and Raphael Soriano.

He was famous for the attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients, regardless of the size of the project, in contrast to other architects eager to impose their artistic vision on a client. Neutra sometimes used detailed questionnaires to discover his client's needs, much to their surprise. His domestic architecture was a blend of art, landscape and practical comfort.

Neutra had a sharp sense of irony. In his autobiography, Life and Shape, he included a playful anecdote about an anonymous movie producer-client who electrified the moat around the house that Neutra designed for him and had his Persian butler fish out the bodies in the morning and dispose of them in a specially designed incinerator. This was a much-embellished account of an actual client, Josef von Sternberg, who indeed had a moated house but not an electrified one.

The novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand was the second owner of the von Sternberg house in the San Fernando Valley (now destroyed). A photo of Neutra and Rand at the home was famously captured by Julius Shulman.

Neutra died in Wuppertal, Germany, on april 16 1970.

Neutra's early watercolors and drawings, most of them of places he traveled (particularly his trips to the Balkans in WWI) and portrait sketches, showed influence from artists such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele etc. Neutra's sister Josefine, who could draw, is cited as developing Neutra's inclination towards drawing (ref: Thomas Hines) .

Legacy

Miller House, Palm Springs

Neutra's son Dion has kept the Silver Lake offices designed and built by his father open as "Richard and Dion Neutra Architecture" in Los Angeles. The Neutra Office Building is itself listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1980, Neutra's widow donated the Van der Leeuw House (VDL Research House), then valued at $207,500, to Cal Poly Pomona to be used by the university's College of Environmental Design faculty and students.^[1][2]

The revival in the late 90s of mid-century modernism has given new cachet to his work, as with homes and public structures built by the architects John Lautner and Rudolf Schindler.

Selected works

• Jardinette Apartments, 1928, Hollywood, California
• Lovell House, 1929, Los Angeles, California
• Von Sternberg House, 1935, San Fernando Valley
• Van der Leeuw House (VDL Research House), 1932, Los Angeles, California
• The Neutra House Project, 1935, Restoration of the Neutra "Orchard House" in Los Altos, California
• Kun House, 1936, Los Angeles, California
• Miller House^[3], 1937, Palm Springs, California
• Windshield House^[4], 1938, Fisher's Island, New York
• Emerson Junior High School, 1938, West Los Angeles, California
• Strathmore Apartments, 1938, Westwood, Los Angeles, California
• Ward-Berger House, 1939, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California
• Bonnet House, 1941, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California
• Schmidt House], 1946, [( Pasadena (Linda Vista) California. 1 )]pasadena neutra 1pasadena neutra rental
• Kaufmann Desert House^[5][6], 1946, Palm Springs, California
• Bailey House, 1946, Santa Monica, California
• Case Study Houses #6 and #13
• Helburn House, 1950, Bozeman, Montana
• Neutra Office Building — Neutra's design studio from 1950 to 1970
• Moore House, 1952, Ojai, California (received AIA award)
• Perkins House,1952–55, Pasadena, California
• Troxell House^[7], 1956, Pacific Palisades, California
• Clark House, 1957, Pasadena, California
• Mellon Hall and Francis Scott Key Auditorium, 1958, St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland
• Riviera Methodist Church, 1958, Redondo Beach
• Garden Grove Community Church, 1959 (Fellowship Hall and Offices), 1961 (Sanctuary), 1968 (Tower of Hope), Garden Grove, California
• Three Senior Officer's Quarters on Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, 1959
• Bond House, 1960, San Diego, California
• R.J. Neutra Elementary School, 1960, Naval Air Station Lemoore, in Lemoore, California (designed in 1929).
• Gettysburg Cyclorama Center, 1962, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
• Mariners Medical Arts, 1963, Newport Beach, California
• Painted Desert Visitor Center, 1963, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
• United States Embassy, 1963, Karachi, Pakistan
• Kuhns House, 1964, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
• Rice House, 1964, Richmond, Virginia
• Rentsch House, 1965, Wengen near Berne in Switzerland; Landscape architect: Ernst Cramer
• Bucerius House, 1965, Brione (TN) sopra Minusio in Switzerland; Landscape architect: Ernst Cramer
• VDL II Research House^[8][9][10], 1964,(rebuilt with son Dion Neutra) Los Angeles, California
• Delcourt House, 1968–69, Croix, Nord, France

Cyclorama Building, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Jardinette Apartments, Hollywood

Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, California.

Dscn02781.jpg Schmidt House, 1946, Pasadena, CA

DSCN01566 Schmidt House, 1946, Pasadena, CA

DSCN0273 Schmidt House, 1946, Pasadena, CA

IMG 0570 Schmidt House, 1946, Pasadena, CA

Publications by Neutra

• 1927: Wie Baut Amerika? (How America Builds) (Julius Hoffman)
• 1930: Amerika: Die Stilbildung des neuen Bauens in den Vereiningten Staaten (Anton Schroll Verlag)
• 1935: "New Elementary Schools for America". Architectural Forum 65 (no. 1): 25–36. January 1935. 
• 1948: Architecture of Social Concern in Regions of Mild Climate (Gerth Todtman)
• 1951: Mysteries and Realities of the Site (Morgan & Morgan)
• 1954: Survival Through Design (Oxford University Press)
• 1956: Life and Human Habitat (Alexander Koch Verlag).
• 1961: Welt und Wohnung (Alexander Kock Verlag)
• 1962: Life and Shape: an Autobiography (Appleton-Century-Crofts), reprinted 2009 (Atara Press)
• 1962: Auftrag für morgen (Claassen Verlag)
• 1962: World and Dwelling (Universe Books)
• 1970: Naturnahes Bauen (Alexander Koch Verlag)
• 1971: Building With Nature (Universe Books)
• 1974: Wasser Steine Licht (Parey Verlag)
• 1977: Bauen und die Sinneswelt (Verlag der Kunst)
• 1989: Nature Near: The Late Essays of Richard Neutra (Capra Press)

Notes

1. ^ "Cal Poly Pomona Given Neutra Research House". Los Angeles Times. 1980-03-02. 
2. ^ "Architect's Home Given To Cal Poly". Los Angeles Times. 1980-05-18. 
3. ^ Leet, Stephen (2004). Richard Neutra's Miller House. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1568982747. 
4. ^ Neumann, Dietrich, ed. (2001). Richard Neutra's Windshield House. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300092032. 
5. ^ Wyatt, Edward (October 31, 2007). "A Landmark Modernist House Heads to Auction". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/arts/design/31hous.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 
6. ^ Judith Gura (May 1, 2008), Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House, ARTINFO, http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/27440/richard-neutras-kaufmann-house/, retrieved 2008-05-14 
7. ^ Troxell Residence at LandLiving.com
8. ^ Eastman, Janet (April 17, 2008). "The clock is ticking for Richard Neutra's VDL Research House II". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-neutra17apr17,1,5038364.story. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 
9. ^ Ayyüce, Orhan (March 17, 2008). "Neutra's VDL House; v. Hard Times". archinect.com. http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=72721_0_23_0_C. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 
10. ^ VDL House website by Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design

Other sources

• McCoy, Esther (1960). Five California Architects. Reinhold Publishing. 
  • reprinted in 1975 by Praeger
• Hines, Thomas (1982). Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195030281. 
  • reprinted in 1994 by the University of California Press
  • reprinted in 2006 by Rizzoli Publications
• Lavin, Sylvia (December 1999). "Open the Box: Richard Neutra and the Psychology of the Domestic Environment". Assemblage 40: 6–25. doi:10.2307/3171369. 
• Lamprecht, Barbara (2000). Richard Neutra: Complete Works. Taschen. ISBN 3822866229. 
• Lamprecht, Barbara (2004). Richard Neutra, 1892–1970: Survival Through Design. Taschen. ISBN 3822827738. 
• Lavin, Sylvia (2005). Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture. MIT Press. ISBN 0262122685. 

External links

• Finding Aid for the Richard and Dion Neutra Papers, Special Collections, Young Research Library, UCLA.
• Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design
• Neutra at GreatBuildings.com
• Neutra at modernsandiego.com
• Neutra biography at r20thcentury.com
• info and photos from Winkens.ie
• History, plans and photographs of the VDL I & VDL II Research Houses Tours of the house are available on Saturdays between 11 and 3pm. Check website to confirm house is open (based on Cal Poly Pomona University schedule.)

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