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Richard Neutra

Richard Neutra
Neutra with a photo of the Beard House, 1935
Born
Richard Joseph Neutra

(1892-04-08)8 April 1892
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died16 April 1970(1970-04-16) (aged 78)
Wuppertal, West Germany
OccupationArchitect
Spouse
Dione Niedermann
​
​
(m. 1922⁠–⁠1970)​
Children3, including Dion Neutra (1926–2019)
AwardsWilhelm Exner Medal (1959)
AIA Gold Medal (1977)

Richard Joseph Neutra (/ˈnɔɪtrə/ NOI-tra;[1] 8 April 1892 – 16 April 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for most of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect.[2][3] His most notable works include the Kaufmann Desert House, in Palm Springs, California.

Biography

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Neutra was born in Leopoldstadt, the second district of Vienna, Austria Hungary, on 8 April 1892, into a wealthy Jewish family. His Jewish-Hungarian father Samuel Neutra (1844–1920),[4][5] was a proprietor of a metal foundry, and his mother, Elizabeth "Betty" Glaser[6] Neutra (1851–1905) was a member of the IKG Wien. Richard had two brothers, who also emigrated to the United States, and a sister, Josephine Theresia "Pepi" Weixlgärtner, an artist who married the Austrian art historian Arpad Weixlgärtner and who later emigrated to Sweden. Her work can be seen at the Modern Art Museum in Stockholm.[7]

Neutra attended the Sophiengymnasium in Vienna until 1910. He studied under Max Fabiani and Karl Mayreder at the Vienna University of Technology (1910–18) and also attended the private architecture school of Adolf Loos. In 1912, he undertook a study trip to Italy and the Balkans with Ernst Ludwig Freud (son of Sigmund Freud).[citation needed]

In June 1914, Neutra's studies were interrupted when he was ordered to Trebinje, where he served as a lieutenant in the artillery until the end of World War I. Dione Neutra recalled her husband Richard's hatred of the retribution against the Serbs in an interview conducted in 1978 after his death: "He talked about the people he met [i.e. in Trebinje] … how his commander was a sadist, who was able to play out his sadistic tendencies…. He was just a small town clerk in Vienna, but then he became his commander."[8]

Neutra took a leave in 1917 to return to the Technische Hochschule to take his final examinations.[9]

After World War I, Neutra moved to Switzerland, where he worked with the landscape architect Gustav Ammann. In 1921, he served briefly as city architect in the German town of Luckenwalde, and later in the same year he joined the office of Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin. Neutra contributed to the firm's competition entry for a new commercial center for Haifa, Palestine (1922), and to the Zehlendorf housing project in Berlin (1923).[10] He married Dione Niedermann, the daughter of an architect, in 1922. They had three sons, Frank L (1924–2008), Dion (1926–2019), who became an architect and his father's partner, and Raymond Richard Neutra (1939–), a physician and environmental epidemiologist.

Richard Neutra moved to the United States by 1923 and became a naturalized citizen in 1929. He worked briefly for Frank Lloyd Wright before accepting an invitation from Rudolf Schindler, a close friend from his university days, to work and live communally in Schindler's Kings Road House in California. Neutra's first works in California were both in the realm of landscape architecture: namely, the grounds of the Lovell Beach House (1922–25), in Newport Beach, which Schindler had designed for Philip Lovell; and a pergola and wading pool for the complex that Wright and Schindler had designed for Aline Barnsdall on Olive Hill (1925), in Hollywood. Schindler and Neutra would go on to collaborate on an entry for the League of Nations Competition (1926–27); in the same year, they formed a firm with the planner Carol Aronovici (1881–1957), called the Architectural Group for Industry and Commerce (AGIC). Neutra subsequently developed his own practice and went on to design numerous buildings embodying the International Style, 12 of which are designated as Historic Cultural Monuments (HCM), including the Lovell Health House (HCM #123; 1929), for the same client as the Lovell Beach House, and the Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House (HCM #640; 1966).[10] In California, he became celebrated for rigorously geometric but airy structures that epitomized a West Coast version of mid-century modern residential design. His clients included Edgar J. Kaufmann, (who had commissioned Wright to design Fallingwater, in Pennsylvania), Galka Scheyer, and Walter Conrad Arensberg. 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. In 1932, he tried to move to the Soviet Union, to help design workers' housing that could be easily constructed, as a means of helping with the housing shortage.[11]

In 1932, Neutra was included in the seminal MoMA exhibition on modern architecture, curated by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock. From 1943 to 1944, Neutra served as a visiting professor of design at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont. In 1949 Neutra formed a partnership with Robert E. Alexander that lasted until 1958, which finally gave him the opportunity to design larger commercial and institutional buildings. In 1955, the United States Department of State commissioned Neutra to design a new embassy in Karachi. Neutra's appointment was part of an ambitious program of architectural commissions to renowned architects, which included embassies by Walter Gropius in Athens, Edward Durrell Stone in New Delhi, Marcel Breuer in The Hague, Josep Lluis Sert in Baghdad, and Eero Saarinen in London. In 1965, Neutra formed a partnership with his son Dion Neutra.[10] Between 1960 and 1970, Neutra created eight villas in Europe, four in Switzerland, three in Germany, and one in France. Prominent clients in this period included Gerd Bucerius, publisher of Die Zeit, as well as figures from commerce and science. His work was also part of the architecture event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.[12]

Richard Joseph Neutra died on 16 April 1970, at the age of 78.[13]

Architectural style

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He was known 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.[citation needed]

In a 1947 article for the Los Angeles Times, "The Changing House," Neutra emphasizes the "ready-for-anything" plan – stressing an open, multifunctional plan for living spaces that are flexible, adaptable and easily modified for any type of life or event.[14]

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.[citation needed]

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 taken by Julius Shulman.[15]

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.[citation needed]

Legacy

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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 listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[14]

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.[16][17] In 2011, the Neutra-designed Kronish House (1954) at 9439 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills sold for $12.8 million.[18]

In 2009, the exhibition "Richard Neutra, Architect: Sketches and Drawings" at the Los Angeles Central Library featured a selection of Neutra's travel sketches, figure drawings and building renderings. An exhibition on the architect's work in Europe between 1960 and 1979 was mounted by the MARTa Herford, Germany.[citation needed]

The Kaufmann Desert House was restored by Marmol Radziner + Associates in the mid-1990s.[19]

The typeface family Neutraface, designed by Christian Schwartz for House Industries, was based on Richard Neutra's architecture and design principles.[citation needed]

In 1977, he was posthumously awarded the AIA Gold Medal, and in 2015, he was honored with a Golden Palm Star on the Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California.[20]

Lost works

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Neutra's 14,000 sq ft (1,300 m2) "Windshield" house built on Fishers Island, New York, for John Nicholas Brown II burned down on New Year's Eve 1973 and was not rebuilt.[21]

The 1935 Von Sternberg House in Northridge, California, was demolished in 1972.[22]

Neutra's 1960 Fine Arts Building at California State University, Northridge, was demolished in 1997, three years after sustaining severe damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.[23][24]

The 1962 Maslon House in Rancho Mirage, California, was demolished in 2002.[25]

Neutra's Cyclorama Building at Gettysburg was demolished by the National Park Service in March 2013.[26]

The Slavin House (1956) in Santa Barbara, California was destroyed in a fire in 2001.[27]

Selected works

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See also: Category:Richard Neutra buildings
Miller House, Palm Springs

Publications

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References

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  1. ^ Dorsey, Michael (2012). The Oyler House: Richard Neutra's Desert Retreat (Motion picture). First Run Features.
  2. ^ Bevan, Alex (7 February 2019) [2018]. The Aesthetics of Nostalgia TV: Production Design and the Boomer Era. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing USA (published 2019). ISBN 9781501331435. Retrieved 19 August 2022. [...] Richard Neutra (a Californian prominent modernist architect) [...].
  3. ^ Burton, Pamela; Botnick, Marie; Smith, Kathryn (2002). "The Pavilion in the Garden". Private Landscapes: Modernist Gardens in Southern California. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 11. ISBN 9781568984025. Retrieved 19 August 2022. It was because of [Wright] that Schindler and Neutra, two important modern architects, came to Los Angeles.
  4. ^ "Chronicles of Brunonia" (PDF). Dl.lib.brown.edu. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  5. ^ "1837/L". .sympatico.ca. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  6. ^ or Glazer
  7. ^ "Collection of prints by Pepi Weixlgärtner-Neutra, 1938–1960". researchworks.oclc.org. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  8. ^ Carmichael, Cathie (3 September 2018). "Culture, resistance and violence: guarding the Habsburg Ostgrenze with Montenegro in 1914". European Review of History. 25 (5): 705–723. doi:10.1080/13507486.2018.1474179.
  9. ^ Esther McCoy.(1974).Letters between R. M. Schindler and Richard Neutra, 1914-1924.Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 33, No. 3 (October 1974), pp.219–224
  10. ^ a b c "Richard Neutra". MoMA. 22 February 2010. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  11. ^ State Archive of the Russian Federation, f R7544, op 1, d 78, l 6
  12. ^ "Richard Neutra". Olympedia. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  13. ^ "Richard Joseph Neutra | Austrian-American architect". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  14. ^ a b Neutra, Dion (2012). "The Neutras Then & Later(Photography by Julius Shulman". I (I). Triton: Barcelona, Los Angeles. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ^ Holleran, Scott. "Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright & Ayn Rand: An Interview with Architect Dion Neutra". Capitalism Magazine. June 2, 2017.
  16. ^ "Cal Poly Pomona Given Neutra Research House". Los Angeles Times. 2 March 1980.
  17. ^ "Architect's Home Given To Cal Poly". Los Angeles Times. 18 May 1980.
  18. ^ Lauren Beale (October 14, 2011), Richard Neutra-designed Kronish house sells for $12.8 million Los Angeles Times.
  19. ^ Ho, Vivien (October 21, 2020) Modernist architectural marvel made famous by Slim Aarons for sale for $25m. Retrieved October 25, 2020
  20. ^ "OLYMPUS1000 ☯️ Link Login Easy Win Site Latest Version di Indonesia" (PDF). palmspringswalkofstars.com. Archived from the original on 13 October 2012.
  21. ^ Bernstein, Fred (3 February 2002). "ART/ARCHITECTURE; When Modern Married Money". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  22. ^ Hines, Thomas S. (31 May 2004). "Richard Neutra". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  23. ^ "Richard Neutra's Fine Arts Building". Peek in the Stacks. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  24. ^ Vitucci, Claire (18 July 1997). "Cal State Northridge Razes Neutra Building". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  25. ^ Dunning, Brad (21 April 2002). "A Destruction Site". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  26. ^ Stansbury, Amy (9 March 2013). "The death of the Gettysburg Cyclorama building". The Evening Sun. Archived from the original on 13 March 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  27. ^ Pridgen, Andrew (17 July 2022). "How a legendary mid-century modern home came to languish in one of California's hottest real estate markets". San Francisco Chronicle.
  28. ^ "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form – Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District". United States Department of the Interior – National Park Service. 4 April 1985.
  29. ^ Dineen, J.K. (15 December 2018). "SF to developer who tore down landmark house: Rebuild it exactly as it was". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  30. ^ "US owner ordered to build replica house". BBC News. 16 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  31. ^ Jao, Carren (November 21, 2014) "Devo rocker's new trio works to restore Neutra's Kun House" Los Angeles Times
  32. ^ "90 Woodland Ave, San Francisco, CA 94117 – 3 beds/1.5 baths". Redfin. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  33. ^ Leet, Stephen; Shulman, Julius (2004). Richard Neutra's Miller House. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-1568982748. LCCN 2003021531. OCLC 473973008.
  34. ^ Neumann, Dietrich, ed. (2001). Richard Neutra's Windshield House. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09203-2.
  35. ^ Wyatt, Edward (31 October 2007). "A Landmark Modernist House Heads to Auction". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 May 2008.
  36. ^ Judith Gura (1 May 2008). "Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House". ARTINFO. Archived from the original on 8 June 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
  37. ^ Friedman, Alice T. (c. 2010). "2. Palm Springs Eternal: Richard Neutra's Kaufmann Desert House". American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press. p. 262. ISBN 978-0300116540. LCCN 2009032574.
  38. ^ "Richard Neutra – NCMH Modernist Masters Gallery". Trianglemodernisthouses.com. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  39. ^ [1] Archived April 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  40. ^ "Everist House Multiple Views (1951)". neutra.org. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  41. ^ Carol Crotta (May 2, 2015), Neutra restoration in Long Beach honors time and patina Los Angeles Times.
  42. ^ "Transitions". Preservation. 64 (1). National Trust for Historic Preservation: 6. January 2012.
  43. ^ "Troxell Residence v.2". landliving.com. Archived from the original on 23 March 2006.
  44. ^ Lavin, Sylvia (2004). Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-12268-5.
  45. ^ Zara, Janelle (6 April 2020). "Inside Richard Neutra's Historic Chuey House". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  46. ^ SAHSCC (8 June 2009). "Modern Patrons: Neutra In Shoshone". Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2018 – via YouTube.
  47. ^ "University Elementary School | Los Angeles Conservancy".
  48. ^ Hines, Thomas S. (2006). Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture (4 ed.). Rizzoli. p. 316. ISBN 978-0847827633. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  49. ^ Obituary For A Consulate Office Building January 19, 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2011
  50. ^ Eastman, Janet (17 April 2008). "The clock is ticking for Richard Neutra's VDL Research House II". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 24 May 2008.
  51. ^ Ayyüce, Orhan (17 March 2008). "Neutra's VDL House; v. Hard Times". archinect.com. Retrieved 24 May 2008.
  52. ^ "Creative Decorating Ideas". NeutraVDL.org. Retrieved 31 July 2015.

Other sources

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Publications on Richard Neutra:

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