Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) was an

Austrian-American Austrian Americans (, ) are Americans of Austrian descent, chiefly German-speaking Catholics and Jews. According to the 2000 U.S. census, there were 735,128 Americans of full or partial Austrian descent, accounting for 0.3% of the population. The ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. Living and building for the majority of his career in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

, he came to be considered a prominent and important

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

architect. He mainly built suburban single-family detached homes for wealthy clients. His most notable works include the

Kaufmann Desert House The Kaufmann Desert House, or simply the Kaufmann House, is a house in Palm Springs, California, that was designed by architect Richard Neutra in 1946. It was commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., a businessman who also commissioned Fallingw ...

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

Biography

Neutra was born in Leopoldstadt, the second district of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, on April 8, 1892, into a wealthy

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. His Jewish-Hungarian father Samuel Neutra (1844–1920) was a proprietor of a metal foundry, and his mother, Elizabeth "Betty" Glaser Neutra (1851–1905) was a member of the

IKG Wien The Jewish Community of Vienna (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien or IKG) is the body that represents Vienna's Orthodox Jewish community. Today, the IKG has around 10 000 members. Throughout history, it has represented almost all of Austria's Jew ...

. Richard had two brothers who also emigrated to the United States, and a sister, Josephine Theresia "Pepi" Weixlgärtner, an artist who was married to the Austrian art historian Arpad Weixlgärtner and who emigrated later to Sweden, where her work can be seen at The Museum of Modern Art. Neutra attended the Sophiengymnasium in Vienna until 1910. He studied under

Max Fabiani Maximilian Fabiani, commonly known as Max Fabiani ( it, Massimo, sl, Maks) (29 April 1865 – 12 August 1962) was a cosmopolitan trilingual architect and town planner of mixed Italian-Austrian ancestry, born in the village of Kobdilj near Š ...

and

Karl Mayreder Karl Mayreder (13 June 1856 in Mauer (today a suburb of Vienna) – 9 September 1935 in Vienna) was an Austrian architect. Life and work Karl Mayreder was born the son of hotelier Leopold Mayreder and his wife Henriette Mayreder. Leopold ...

at the

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

(1910–18), and also attended the private architecture school of

Adolf Loos Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was an inspiration to modernism and a widely-k ...

. In 1912 he undertook a study trip to Italy and the Balkans with

Ernst Ludwig Freud Ernst L. Freud (6 April 1892 – 7 April 1970) was an Austrian architect and the fourth child of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his German-born wife Martha Bernays. In honour of his wife, Ernst Freud added the initial L. to his name wh ...

(son of

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

). In June 1914, Neutra's studies were interrupted when he was ordered to

Trebinje Trebinje ( sr-Cyrl, Требиње, ) is a city and municipality located in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the southernmost city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is situated on the banks of Trebišnjica river in the re ...

, where he served as an lieutenant in the artillery until the end of the war. Dione Neutra recalled her husband Richard's hatred of the retribution against the

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

in an interview conducted in 1978 after his death: “He talked about the people he met .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.” Neutra took a leave in 1917 to return to the Technische Hochschule to take his final examinations. After World War I, Neutra went to Switzerland where he worked with the landscape architect

Gustav Ammann Gustav Ammann (1885–1955) was a Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in ...

. In 1921 he served briefly as city architect in the German town of

Luckenwalde Luckenwalde (; Upper and dsb, Łukowc) is the capital of the Teltow-Fläming district in the German state of Brandenburg. It is situated on the Nuthe river north of the Fläming Heath, at the eastern rim of the Nuthe-Nieplitz Nature Park, abou ...

, 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 centre for Haifa, Palestine (1922), and to the Zehlendorf housing project in Berlin (1923). He married Dione Niedermann, the daughter of an architect, in 1922. They had three sons, Frank L (1924–2008), Dion (1926–2019) an architect and his father's partner, and Raymond Richard (1939–) a physician and environmental epidemiologist. Neutra moved to the United States by 1923 and became a

naturalized citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

in 1929. Neutra worked briefly for

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

before accepting an invitation from his close friend and university companion Rudolf Schindler to work and live communally in Schindler's

Kings Road House The Schindler House, also known as the Schindler Chace House or Kings Road House, is a house in West Hollywood, California, designed by architect Rudolph M. Schindler. The house serves as headquarters to the MAK Center for Art and Architectur ...

in California. Neutra's first work in Los Angeles was in landscape architecture, where he provided the design for the garden of Schindler's beach house (1922–25), designed for Philip Lovell, Newport Beach, and for a pergola and wading pool for Wright and Schindler's complex for

Aline Barnsdall Louise Aline Barnsdall (April 1, 1882 – December 18, 1946) was an American oil heiress, best known as Frank Lloyd Wright's client for the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, now the centerpiece of the city's Barnsdall Art Park. Biography Born i ...

on Olive Hill (1925), Hollywood. Schindler and Neutra collaborated on an entry for the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

Competition of 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). He subsequently developed his own practice and went on to design numerous buildings embodying the International Style, twelve of which are designated as Historic Cultural Monuments (HCM), including the Lovell Health House (HCM #123; 1929) and the Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House (HCM #640; 1966). In California, he became celebrated for rigorously geometric but airy structures that symbolized a West Coast variation on the mid-century modern residence. Clients included Edgar J. Kaufmann,

Galka Scheyer Galka Scheyer (born Emilie Esther Scheyer; 15 April 1889, Braunschweig – 13 December 1945, Los Angeles) was a German-American painter, art dealer, art collector, and teacher. She was the founder of the "Blue Four," an artists' group that consist ...

, and

Walter Conrad Arensberg Walter Conrad Arensberg (April 4, 1878 – January 29, 1954) was an American art collector, critic and poet. His father was part owner and president of a crucible steel company. He majored in English and philosophy at Harvard University. With his w ...

. In the early 1930s, Neutra's Los Angeles practice trained several young architects who went on to independent success, including

Gregory Ain Gregory Samuel Ain (March 28, 1908 – January 9, 1988) was an American architect active in the mid-20th century. Working primarily in the Los Angeles area, Ain is best known for bringing elements of modern architecture to lower- and medium- ...

Harwell Hamilton Harris Harwell Hamilton Harris, (July 2, 1903 – November 18, 1990) was a modernist American architect, noted for his work in Southern California that assimilated European and American influences. He lived and worked in North Carolina from 1962 until ...

, and

Raphael Soriano Raphael S. Soriano, FAIA, (August 1, 1904 – July 21, 1988) was an architect and educator, who helped define a period of 20th-century architecture that came to be known as Mid-century modern. He pioneered the use of modular prefabricated ...

. 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. In 1932, Neutra was included in the seminal MoMA exhibition on modern architecture, curated by

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...

and

Henry-Russell Hitchcock Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987) was an American architectural historian, and for many years a professor at Smith College and New York University. His writings helped to define the characteristics of modernist architecture. Early life He ...

. 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 The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

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 Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...

in Athens,

Edward Durrell Stone Edward Durell Stone (March 9, 1902 – August 6, 1978) was an American architect known for the formal, highly decorative buildings he designed in the 1950s and 1960s. His works include the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, the Museo de A ...

in New Delhi,

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...

in The Hague,

Josep Lluis Sert Josep is a Catalan masculine given name equivalent to Joseph (Spanish ''José''). People named Josep include: * Josep Bargalló (born 1958), Catalan philologist and former politician * Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), Catalan painter, cartoonist and ...

in Baghdad, and

Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...

in London. In 1965, Neutra formed a partnership with his son Dion Neutra. 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 Gerd Bucerius (19 May 1906 – 29 September 1995) was a German politician, publisher and journalist, one of the founding members of '' Die Zeit''. He is the namesake of the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and of the Bucerius Kunst Forum, an art ...

, publisher of ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The ...

'', 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 The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

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

Architectural style

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. In a 1947 article for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', "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. 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 Josef von Sternberg (; born Jonas Sternberg; May 29, 1894 – December 22, 1969) was an Austrian-American filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major ...

, who indeed had a moated house but not an electrified one. The novelist/philosopher

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

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 Julius Shulman (October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009) was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph " Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as the Stahl House. Shulm ...

. 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 Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's prim ...

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portr ...

etc. Neutra's sister Josefine, who could draw, is cited as developing Neutra's inclination towards drawing.

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 The Neutra Office Building is a office building in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles, California. The building was owned and designed by Modernist architect Richard Neutra in 1950. It served as the studio and office for Neutra's architect ...

is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. 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 California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona, CPP, or Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo. See the '' name'' section of this article for more info ...

(Cal Poly Pomona) to be used by the university's College of Environmental Design faculty and students. In 2011, the Neutra-designed Kronish House (1954) at 9439

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in t ...

in Beverly Hills sold for $12.8 million. In 2009, the exhibition "Richard Neutra, Architect: Sketches and Drawings" at the

Los Angeles Central Library Richard J. Riordan Central Library, also known as the Los Angeles Central Library, is the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), in Downtown Los Angeles. It is named after Mayor of Los Angeles Richard Riordan. It consists of tw ...

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. The

was restored by

Marmol Radziner + Associates Marmol Radziner is a design-build practice based in Los Angeles that was founded in 1989 by American architects Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner. The firm specializes in residential, commercial, hospitality, cultural, and community projects, and offer ...

in the mid-1990s. The typeface family

Neutraface Neutraface is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Christian Schwartz for House Industries, an American digital type foundry. It was influenced by the work of architect Richard Neutra and was developed with the assistance of Neutra's so ...

, designed by

Christian Schwartz Christian Schwartz (born December 30, 1977 in Concord, New Hampshire, United States) is an American type designer. He has been awarded the German Design Award and the Prix Charles Peignot. Life A graduate of the Communication Design program at ...

for

House Industries House Industries is a type foundry and design studio based in Yorklyn, Delaware. The company was created in the 1990s in Wilmington, Delaware by co-founders Andy Cruz and Rich Roat. The company is best known for its typeface creations, which have a ...

, was based on Richard Neutra's architecture and design principles. In 1977, he was posthumously awarded the

AIA Gold Medal The AIA Gold Medal is awarded by the American Institute of Architects conferred "by the national AIA Board of Directors in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture." It is the Ins ...

, and in 2015, he was honored with a Golden Palm Star on the Walk of Stars in

Lost works

Neutra's 14,000 sqf "Windshield" house built on Fishers Island, NY for

John Nicholas Brown II John Nicholas Brown II (February 21, 1900 – October 10, 1979) was the United States Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR) from 1946 to 1949. He was a member of the Brown family that had been active in American life since before the American Re ...

burned down on New Year's Eve 1973 and was not rebuilt. The 1935 Von Sternberg House in Northridge, California was demolished in 1972. Neutra's 1960 ''Fine Arts Building'' at

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

was demolished in 1997, three years after suffering severe damage in the

1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...

. The 1962 Maslon House in

Rancho Mirage, California Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal (part-time) population can exceed 20,000. Incorporated in 1973 and located ...

, was demolished in 2002. Neutra's

Cyclorama Building at Gettysburg The Cyclorama Building at Gettysburg was a historic modernist concrete and glass Mission 66 building dedicated November 19, 1962 by the National Park Service (NPS) to serve as a Gettysburg Battlefield visitor center, to exhibit the 1883 Paul P ...

was demolished by the National Park Service in March 2013. The Slavin House (1956) in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

was destroyed in a fire in 2001.

Selected works

* Jardinette Apartments, 1928, 5128 Marathon Street,

Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Univer ...

Lovell House The Lovell House or Lovell Health House is an International style modernist residence designed and built by Richard Neutra between 1927 and 1929. The home, located at 4616 Dundee Drive in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, ...

, 1929,

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

* Van der Leeuw House (VDL Research House), 1932,

* Mosk House, 1933, 2742 Hollyridge Drive,

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

* Nathan and Malve Koblick House, 1933, 98 Fairview Avenue, Atherton, California * Universal-International Building ( Laemmle Building), 1933, 6300 Hollywood Boulevard,

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a metonymy, shorthand reference for the Cinema of the United States, U.S. film industry and the people associated with i ...

* Scheyer House, 1934, 1880 Blue Heights Drive,

* William and Melba Beard House (with Gregory Ain), 1935, 1981 Meadowbrook,

Altadena Altadena () ("Alta", Spanish for "Upper", and "dena" from Pasadena) is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in the Verdugo Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, approximately 14 miles (23 km) from the downtown ...

* California Military Academy, 1935,

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

* Corona Avenue Elementary School, 1935, 3835 Bell Avenue, Bell, California * Largent House, 1935, 49 Hopkins Avenue at the corner of Burnett Avenue, San Francisco. Building was demolished by new owners and , they have been ordered to rebuild an exact replica. * Von Sternberg House, 1935,

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

, Los Angeles *

Sten The STEN (or Sten gun) is a family of British submachine guns chambered in 9×19mm which were used extensively by British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and the Korean War. They had a simple design and very low production cost ...

and

Frenke Emmerthal is a municipality in the Hameln-Pyrmont district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Weser, approximatively 6 km south of Hameln. Its seat is in the village Kirchohsen. In 1973, the Emmerthal was formed by mer ...

House (

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria. History The Historic-Cult ...

#647), 1934, 126 Mabery Road,

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

The Neutra House Project
1935, Restoration of the Neutra "Orchard House" in

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 census. Most of the city's growth occurred between 1950 and 1980. Originally ...

* Josef Kun House, 1936, 7960 Fareholm Drive,

Nichols Canyon Nichols Canyon is a residential area in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California, bounded by Hollywood Boulevard on the south and Mulholland Drive on the north, lying between Laurel Canyon and Runyon Canyon. It was also known as Miller C ...

* Darling House, 1937, 90 Woodland Avenue, San Francisco, California
George Kraigher House
1937, 525 Paredes Line Road, Brownsville, Texas *

Landfair Apartments The Landfair Apartments is a historic two-building multi-family complex located on the southwest corner of Landfair Avenue and Ophir Drive in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. They were colloquially known as The Glass House a ...

, 1937,

Westwood, Los Angeles, California Westwood is a commercial and residential neighborhood in the northern central portion of the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Bordering the campus on the south ...

Strathmore Apartments The Strathmore Apartments is a historic 8-unit multi-family complex located at 11005-11013 1/2 Strathmore Drive in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Notable past residents, amongst others, include John Entenza, Charles Eames ...

, 1937,

* Aquino Duplex, 1937, 2430 Leavenworth Street, San Francisco *

Leon Barsha Leon Barsha (December 26, 1905 November 13, 1964) was an American film producer, editor and director. As a producer and director he was best known for making films in the Western genre. In his later years he concentrated especially on editing. ...

House (with P. Pfisterer), 1937, 302 Mesa Road, Pacific Palisades, California * Miller House, 1937,

* Windshield House, 1938,

Fisher's Island, New York Fishers Island (Pequot: ''Munnawtawkit'') is an island that is part of Southold, New York, United States at the eastern end of Long Island Sound, off the southeastern coast of Connecticut across Fishers Island Sound. About long and wide, it ...

* Albert Lewin House, 1938, 512-514 Palisades Beach Road, Santa Monica, Los Angeles *

Emerson Junior High School Ralph Waldo Emerson Community Charter School (formerly Ralph Waldo Emerson Middle School and commonly referred to as Emerson) is a charter middle school in the Los Angeles Unified School District in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United States ...

, 1938, 1650 Selby Avenue,

West Los Angeles, California West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

Ward-Berger House
1939, 3156 North Lake Hollywood Drive,

Kelton Apartments The Kelton Apartments is a historic 4-unit 2-story multi-family building located at 644-648 Kelton Avenue, in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The building is a part of a collection of homes designed by Los Angeles based mod ...

Westwood, Los Angeles Westwood is a commercial and residential neighborhood in the northern central portion of the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Bordering the campus on the south ...

* Sidney Kahn House, 1940, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco * Beckstrand House, 1940, 1400 Via Montemar,

Palos Verdes Estates Palos Verdes Estates (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The city was master-planned by the noted American landscape architect and ...

, Los Angeles County * Bonnet House, 1941, 2256 El Contento Drive,

* Neutra/Maxwell House, 1941, 475 N. Bowling Green Way,

Brentwood, Los Angeles Brentwood is a suburban neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles. History General Modern development began after the establishment of the Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Soldiers and Sailors in the 1880s. A sma ...

(Moved to

Angelino Heights Angelino Heights, alternately spelled Angeleno Heights, is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Situated between neighboring Chinatown and Echo Park, the neighborhood is known for its concentration of eclectic architectural styles from ...

in 2008.) * Van Cleef Residence, 1942, 651 Warner Avenue,

* Geza Rethy House, 1942, 2101 Santa Anita Avenue,

Sierra Madre Sierra Madre (Spanish, 'mother mountain range') may refer to: Places and mountains Mexico *Sierra Madre Occidental, a mountain range in northwestern Mexico and southern Arizona *Sierra Madre Oriental, a mountain range in northeastern Mexico *S ...

, California * Channel Heights Housing Projects, 1942,

San Pedro, California San Pedro ( ; Spanish: " St. Peter") is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located wi ...

* John Nesbitt House, 1942, 414 Avondale,

, 1946,

* Stuart Bailey House, 1948,

Pacific Palisades, California Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside Los Angeles, Westside region of Los Angeles, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. Pacific Palisades was formally founded in 1921 by a Chautauqua, Methodist organization, an ...

(Case Study 20A) *

Case Study Houses The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by '' Arts & Architecture'' magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day, including Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray ...

#6, #13, #20A, #21A * Schmidt House, 1948, 1460 Chamberlain Road,

Linda Vista, Pasadena, California Linda Vista is a neighborhood in Pasadena, California. It is one of Pasadena's wealthiest neighborhoods, and its largest by area. It is bordered by Oak Grove Drive to the north, Colorado Boulevard to the south, the Pasadena-Glendale border to the we ...

* Joseph Tuta House, 1948, 1800 Via Visalia,

Palos Verdes, California The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the Sou ...

* Holiday House Motel, 1948, 27400 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California *

Elkay Apartments The Elkay Apartments is a historic five-unit two-story multi-family building located at 638-642 Kelton Avenue, in the Westwood, Los Angeles, Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. History Designed in 1948 in the International Style ( ...

, 1948, 638-642 Kelton Avenue, Westwood, Los Angeles * Gordon Wilkins House, 1949, 528 South Hermosa Place,

South Pasadena, California South Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,619, up from 24,292 at the 2000 census. It is located in the West San Gabriel Valley. It ...

* Alpha Wirin House, 1949, 2622 Glendower Avenue,

Los Feliz, Los Angeles Los Feliz (, ; Spanish for "The Feliz amily, ) is a hillside neighborhood in the greater Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, abutting Hollywood and encompassing part of the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood is named after the Feli ...

* Hines House, 1949, 760 Via Somonte,

* Atwell House, 1950, 1411 Atwell Road,

El Cerrito, California El Cerrito ( Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 25,962 according to the 2020 census. El Cerrito was founded by refugee ...

* Nick Helburn House, 1950, Sourdough Road,

Bozeman, Montana Bozeman is a city and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. Located in southwest Montana, the 2020 census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it the fourth-largest city in Montana. It is the principal city of th ...

— Neutra's design studio from 1950 to 1970 * Kester Avenue Elementary School, 5353 Kester Avenue, Los Angeles (with Dion Neutra), 1951, Sherman Oaks, California * Everist House, 1951, 200 W. 45th Street,

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

* Moore House, 1952, Ojai, California (received

AIA AIA or A.I.A. or Aia may refer to: Aia * Aia, a small town in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain * Aia, current Kutaisi, ancient capital of Colchis * Aia, another name for Aea (Malis), an ancient town in Greece * ''Aia'', the collected ed ...

award) * Perkins House, 1952–55, 1540 Poppypeak Drive,

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

* Schaarman House, 1953, 7850 Torreyson Drive,

* Olan G. and Aida T. Hafley House, 1953, 5561 East La Pasada Street, Long Beach * Brown House, 1955, 10801 Chalon Road,

Bel Air, Los Angeles Bel Air (or Bel-Air) is a residential neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. Founded in 1923, it is the home of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden and the American Jewish Universit ...

* Kronish House, 1955, Beverly Hills, California * Sidney R. Troxell House, 1956, 766 Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, California * Chuey House, 1956, 2460 Sunset Plaza Drive,

* Clark House, 1957,

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

* Airman's Memorial Chapel, 1957, 5702 Bauer Road,

Miramar, California Miramar (Spanish for "Sea View") is a neighborhood in the northern part of the city of San Diego, California, United States. It includes residential areas and commercial and light industrial districts. Most residents live on the Marine Corps Air ...

* Sorrell's House, 1957, Old State Highway 127,

Shoshone, California Shoshone is a census designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California, United States. The population was 22 at the 2020 census, down from 31 at the 2010 census. The town was founded in 1910. Although small, it is notable as a southern gateway ...

* Ferro Chemical Company Building, 1957,

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

* The Lew House, 1958, 1456 Sunset Plaza Drive, Los Angeles * Connell House, 1958,

Pebble Beach, California Pebble Beach is an unincorporated community on the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey County, California. The small coastal residential community of mostly single-family homes is also notable as a resort destination, and the home of the golf cou ...

* Mellon Hall and Francis Scott Key Auditorium, 1958, St. John's College,

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

* Riviera United Methodist Church, 1958, 375 Palos Verdes Boulevard, Redondo Beach * Loring House, 1959, 2456 Astral Drive, Los Angeles (addition by Escher GuneWardena Architecture, 2006 * Singleton House, 1959, 15000

Mulholland Drive Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties is nam ...

* Oyler House, 1959

Lone Pine, California Lone Pine is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California, United States. Lone Pine is located south-southeast of Independence, at an elevation of . The population was 2,035 at the 2010 census, up from 1,655 at the 2000 census. T ...

* UCLA Lab School, 1959 (with Robert Alexander) * Shepherd's Grove, Garden Grove Community Church, 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 * Julian Bond House, 1960, 4449 Yerba Santa, San Diego, California * R.J. Neutra Elementary School, 1960, Naval Air Station Lemoore, in Lemoore, California (designed in 1929) * Buena Park Swim Stadium and Recreation Center, 1960, 7225 El Dorado Drive, Buena Park, California * Palos Verdes High School, 1961, 600 Cloyden Road,

* Haus Rang, 1961, Königstein im Taunus, Germany * Hans Grelling House/Casa Tuia on Monte Verità, 1961, Strada del Roccolo 11, Ascona, Ticino, Tessin, Switzerland * Los Angeles County Hall of Records, 1962,

. * Cyclorama Building at Gettysburg, Gettysburg Cyclorama, 1962, Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania * Gonzales Gorrondona House, 1962, Avenida la Linea 65, Sabana Grande, Caracas, Venezuela * Bewobau Residences, 1963, Quickborn near Hamburg, Germany * Mariners Medical Arts, 1963, Newport Beach, California * Painted Desert Community Complex Historic District, Painted Desert Visitor Center, 1963, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona * United States Embassy, (later US Consulate General until 2011), 1959, Abdullaha Haroon Road, Karachi, Pakistan * Swirbul Library, 1963, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York * Kuhns House, 1964, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California * Rice House (Richmond, Virginia), Rice House (

), 1964, 1000 Old Locke Lane, Richmond, Virginia * Neutra VDL Studio and Residences, VDL II Research House, 1964, (rebuilt with son Dion Neutra)

* Rentsch House, 1965, Wengen near Berne in Switzerland; Landscape architect: Ernst Cramer (architect), Ernst Cramer * Ebelin Bucerius House, 1962–1965, Brione sopra Minusio in Switzerland; Landscape architect: Ernst Cramer (architect), Ernst Cramer * Roberson Memorial Center, 1965, Binghamton, New York * Haus Kemper, 1965, Wuppertal, Germany * Sports and Congress Center, 1965, Reno, Nevada * Delcourt House, 1968–69, Croix, Nord, Croix, Nord (département), Nord, France * Haus Pescher, 1969, Wuppertal, Germany * Haus Jürgen Tillmanns, 1970, Stettfurt, Thurgau, Switzerland File:Gettysburg Cyclorama Building.jpg, Richard Neutra's Cyclorama Building, Cyclorama Building, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania File:Jardinette Apartments (Richard Neutra), Hollywood.JPG, Jardinette Apartments, Hollywood File:Kaufman Desert Home.jpg,

, Palm Springs, California. File:6207-GardenGroveCommunityDriveInChurch.jpg, Garden Grove Community Church, Garden Grove, CA File:OldUSConsulateKarachi.jpg, The former US embassy (later consulate) in Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

Publications

* 1927: ''Wie Baut Amerika? (How America Builds)'' (Julius Hoffman) * 1930: ''Amerika: Die Stilbildung des neuen Bauens in den Vereinigten Staaten'' (Anton Schroll Verlag). New Ways of Building in the World [series], vol. 2. Edited by El Lissitzky. * 1935: * 1948: ''Architecture of Social Concern in Regions of Mild Climate'' (Gerth Todtman) * 1951: ''Mystery 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)

References

Other sources

* ** reprinted in 1975 by Praeger * ** reprinted in 1994 by the University of California Press ** reprinted in 2006 by Rizzoli Publications * * * * * * Publications on Richard Neutra: Harriet Roth; Richard Neutra in ''Berlin, Die Geschichte der Zehlendorfer Häuser'', Berlin 2016. Hatje Cantz publishers. Harriet Roth; ''Richard Neutra. The Story of the Berlin Houses 1920–1924'', Berlin 2019. Hatje Cantz publishers. Harriet Roth; ''Richard Neutra. Architekt in Berlin,'' Berlin 2019. Hentrich&Hentrich publishers.

External links

Finding Aid for the Richard and Dion Neutra Papers
UCLA Library Special Collections.
Digitized plans, sketches, photographs, texts from the Richard and Dion Neutra Collection
UCLA Library Special Collections.
Jan De Graaff Residence architectural drawings and photographs, circa 1940s
http://library.columbia.edu/locations/avery/da.html/ Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives]
Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University

Richard Joseph Neutra papers, 1927-1978 Held in the Dept. of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York City

Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design (NISTD)

Neutra biography at r20thcentury.com

Info and photos from Winkens.ie

History, plans and photographs of the VDL I & VDL II Research Houses

Neutra VDL Studio and Residences iPad App

* [https://socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2011/05/r-m-schindler-richard-neutra-and-louis.html R. M. Schindler, Richard Neutra and Louis Sullivan's "Kindergarten Chats"]
Foundations of Los Angeles Modernism: Richard Neutra's Mod Squad

Richard Joseph Neutra papers, 1927-1978, held by the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University
*Finding aid for hdl:10020/cifa2010m58, Thomas S. Hines interviews regarding Richard J. Neutra. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Accession No. 2010.M.58. Interviewees include Neutra's family, friends, business associates, clients, and Los Angeles architects. {{DEFAULTSORT:Neutra, Richard International style architects Modernist architects from the United States Jewish architects American people of Austrian-Jewish descent 1892 births 1970 deaths Richard Neutra buildings, 01 Austrian architects Modernist architects California State Polytechnic University, Pomona faculty 20th-century Austrian people Austrian Jews Austrian expatriates in Germany Austrian emigrants to the United States Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany People from Leopoldstadt 20th-century American architects Olympic competitors in art competitions Recipients of the AIA Gold Medal