Richard Neutra

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

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

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 California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (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.

The typeface family Neutraface, designed by Christian Schwartz of House Industries, was based on Richard Neutra's architecture and design principles.

The Kaufmann House was restored by Marmol Radziner + Associates in the mid 90s.

Selected works

Miller House, Palm Springs

Cyclorama Building, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Jardinette Apartments, Hollywood

Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, California.

Publications by Neutra

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. ↑ http://www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/neutra.htm
  8. ↑ http://www.allbusiness.com/construction/4360438-1.html
  9. ↑ Troxell Residence at LandLiving.com
  10. ↑ 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. 
  11. ↑ 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. 
  12. ↑ VDL House website by Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design

Other sources

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