Richard Neutra

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Richard Neutra

Neutra with a photo of the Beard House,

1935

Born

Richard Joseph Neutra

8 April 1892

Died

16 April 1970

(aged 78)

Occupation

Architect

Spouse

Dione Niedermann

(

1922⁠–⁠1970)

Children

3, including

(1926–2019)

Awards

(1959)

(1977)

Richard Joseph Neutra

(

;

8 April 1892 – 16 April 1970)

was an

. Living and building for most of his career

, he came to be considered a prominent and important

architect.

His most notable works include the

, in

Biography

[

]

Neutra was born in Leopoldstadt, the second district of

, on 8 April 1892, into a wealthy

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

. Richard had two brothers, who also emigrated to the United

States, and a sister,

, an artist who

married the Austrian art historian

and who later emigrated

to Sweden. Her work can be seen at the Modern Art Museum in Stockholm.

Neutra attended the Sophiengymnasium in Vienna until 1910. He studied under

and

at the

(1910–18)

and also attended the private architecture school of

. In 1912, he

undertook a study trip to Italy and the Balkans with

(son of

[

]

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

, 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

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."

Neutra took a leave in 1917 to return to the Technische Hochschule to take his

final examinations.

After World War I, Neutra moved to Switzerland, where he worked with the landscape architect

. In 1921,

he served briefly as city architect in the German town of

, and later in the same year he joined the office

in Berlin. Neutra contributed to the firm's competition entry for a new commercial center for

Haifa, British Mandate of 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),

(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

in 1929. He worked briefly for

before accepting an invitation from

, a close friend from his university days, to

work and live communally in Schindler's

in California. Neutra's first works in California were both

in the realm of landscape architecture: namely, the grounds of the

(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

on Olive Hill (1925), in Hollywood. Schindler and Neutra would go on to

collaborate on an entry for the

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

, 12

of which are designated as Historic Cultural Monuments (HCM), including the

(HCM #123; 1929), for

the same client as the Lovell Beach House, and the Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House (HCM #640; 1966).

California, he became celebrated for rigorously geometric but airy structures that epitomized a West Coast version of

residential design. His clients included

, (who

had commissioned Wright to design

, in Pennsylvania),

, and

. In the early 1930s, Neutra's Los Angeles

practice trained several young architects who went on to independent success, including

, and

. 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

exhibition on modern architecture, curated by

and

. 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

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

Athens,

in New Delhi,

in The Hague,

in Baghdad, and

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

, publisher of

, as well as figures from commerce and science. His work was also part of

the

in the

at the

Richard Joseph Neutra died on 16 April 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

, "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,

, who indeed had a moated house but not an

electrified one.

[

]

The novelist/philosopher

was the second owner of the

in the San Fernando Valley (now

destroyed). A photo of Neutra and Rand at the home was taken by

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

etc. Neutra's sister

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

[

]

Legacy

[

]

Neutra's son

has kept the Silver Lake offices designed and built by his father open as "Richard and Dion Neutra

Architecture" in Los Angeles. The

is listed on the

In 1980, Neutra's widow donated the

, then valued at $207,500, to

(Cal Poly Pomona) to be used by the university's

faculty and students.

In 2011, the Neutra-designed

(1954) at 9439

in Beverly

Hills sold for $12.8 million.

In 2009, the exhibition "Richard Neutra, Architect: Sketches and Drawings" at the

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

in the mid-1990s.

The typeface family

, designed by

for

, was based on Richard Neutra's

architecture and design principles.

[

]

In 1977, he was posthumously awarded the

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

Lost works

[

]

Neutra's 14,000 sq ft (1,300 m

) "Windshield" house built on Fishers Island, New York, for

burned down on New Year's Eve 1973 and was not rebuilt.

The 1935

in Northridge, California, was demolished in 1972.

Neutra's 1960 Fine Arts Building at

, was demolished in 1997, three years after

sustaining severe damage in the

The 1962

, was demolished in 2002.

Neutra's

was demolished by the National Park Service in March 2013.

The Slavin House (1956) in

, was destroyed in a fire in 2001.

The

House (1949) burned down in the 2025 Pacific

Selected works, chronologically

[

]

See also:

Miller House, Palm Springs

, 1928, 5128 Marathon Street,

, 1929,

, 1932,

Mosk House, 1933, 2742 Hollyridge Drive,

Nathan and Malve Koblick House, 1933, 98 Fairview Avenue,

, California

, 1932, 6301 Hollywood Boulevard,

House, 1934, 1880 Blue Heights Drive,

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

California Military Academy, 1935,

Corona Avenue Elementary School, 1935, 3835 Bell Avenue,

Largent House, 1935, 49 Hopkins Avenue at the corner of Burnett Avenue, San Francisco. Building was demolished by

new owners and as of 2018

, they have been ordered to rebuild an exact replica.

, 1935,

, Los Angeles

and

House (

#647), 1934, 126 Mabery Road,

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

Josef Kun House, 1936, 7960 Fareholm Drive,

Darling House,

1937, 90 Woodland Avenue, San Francisco, California

George Kraigher House, 1937, 525 Paredes Line Road, Brownsville, Texas

, 1937,

Aquino Duplex, 1937, 2430 Leavenworth Street, San Francisco

House (with P. Pfisterer), 1937, 302 Mesa Road,

, California

Miller House,

1937,

Windshield House,

1938,

, 1938, 512-514 Palisades Beach Road,

, 1938, 1650 Selby Avenue,

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

, 1940, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco

Beckstrand House, 1940, 1400 Via Montemar,

, Los Angeles County

Bonnet House, 1941, 2256 El Contento Drive,

, 1941, 475 N. Bowling Green Way,

(Moved to

in 2008.)

Van Cleef Residence, 1942, 651 Warner Avenue,

Geza Rethy House, 1942, 2101 Santa Anita Avenue,

, California

Channel Heights Housing Projects, 1942,

John Nesbitt House, 1942, 414 Avondale,

1946,

Stuart Bailey House, 1948,

(Case Study 20A)

#6, #13, #20A, #21A

Schmidt House, 1948, 1460 Chamberlain Road,

Joseph Tuta House, 1948, 1800 Via Visalia,

Holiday House Motel, 1948, 27400

, California

, 1948, 638–642 Kelton Avenue,

, Los Angeles

Gordon Wilkins House, 1949, 528 South Hermosa Place,

Alpha Wirin House, 1949, 2622 Glendower Avenue,

Hines House, 1949, 760 Via Somonte,

Atwell House, 1950, 1411 Atwell Road,

Nick Helburn House, 1950, Sourdough Road,

— Neutra's design studio from 1950 to 1970

Kester Avenue Elementary School, 5353 Kester Avenue, Los Angeles (with

), 1951,

Everist House, 1951, 200 W. 45th Street,

, 1952,

(received

award)

, 1952–55, 1540 Poppypeak Drive,

, 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,

, 1955, Beverly Hills, California

Sidney R. Troxell House,

1956, 766 Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, California

Chuey House, 1956, 2460 Sunset Plaza Drive,

, 1957,

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

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

, 1957,

, Ohio

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

Connell House, 1958,

Mellon Hall and Francis Scott Key Auditorium, 1958,

Riviera United Methodist Church, 1958, 375 Palos Verdes Boulevard,

, 1959, 2456 Astral Drive, Los Angeles (addition by Escher GuneWardena Architecture, 2006

Singleton House, 1959, 15000

Oyler House, 1959

, 1959 (with Robert Alexander)

, Community Church, 1959 (Fellowship Hall and Offices), 1961 (Sanctuary), 1968 (Tower

of Hope),

Three senior officer's quarters on

, Idaho, 1959

Julian Bond House, 1960, 4449 Yerba Santa,

, 1960,

, in

(designed in 1929)

Buena Park Swim Stadium and Recreation Center, 1960, 7225 El Dorado Drive,

, 1961, 600 Cloyden Road,

Haus Rang, 1961,

, Germany

Hans Grelling House/Casa Tuia on Monte Verità, 1961, Strada del Roccolo 11,

, Switzerland

, 1962,

, Pennsylvania

Gonzales Gorrondona House, 1962, Avenida la Linea 65, Sabana Grande, Caracas, Venezuela

Bewobau Residences, 1963,

near

, Germany

Mariners Medical Arts, 1963,

, 1963,

, Arizona

United States Embassy, (later US Consulate General until 2011), 1959, Abdullaha Haroon Road,

Swirbul Library, 1963,

, Garden City, New York

Kuhns House, 1964,

(

), 1964, 1000 Old Locke Lane,

1964, (rebuilt with son

)

Rentsch House, 1965,

near Berne in Switzerland; Landscape architect:

, 1962–1965,

in Switzerland; Landscape architect:

Roberson Memorial Center, 1965, Binghamton, New York

Haus Kemper, 1965,

, Germany

Sports and Congress Center, 1965,

, Nevada

Delcourt House, 1968–69,

, France

Haus Pescher, 1969,

, Germany

Haus Jürgen Tillmanns, 1970, Stettfurt, Thurgau, Switzerland

Gettysburg,

Pennsylvania

Jardinette Apartments,

Hollywood

Palm Springs,

California.

Garden Grove Community

Church, Garden Grove, CA

The former US embassy

(later consulate) in

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

1935:

"New Elementary Schools for America".

Architectural Forum

(1):

25–

36. January 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

[

]

Dorsey, Michael (2012).

The Oyler House: Richard Neutra's Desert Retreat

(Motion picture). First Run Features.

Bevan, Alex (7 February 2019) [2018].

. New York:

Bloomsbury Publishing USA (published 2019).

. Retrieved

19 August

2022

[...] Richard Neutra (a Californian

prominent modernist architect) [...].

; Botnick, Marie; Smith, Kathryn (2002). "The Pavilion in the Garden".

. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 11.

. Retrieved

19 August

2022

It was

because of [Wright] that Schindler and Neutra, two important modern architects, came to Los Angeles.

(PDF)

. Dl.lib.brown.edu

. Retrieved

31 July

2015

. .sympatico.ca

. Retrieved

31 July

2015

or Glazer

researchworks.oclc.org

. Retrieved

29 April

2021

Carmichael, Cathie (3 September 2018).

European Review of History

(5):

705–

723.

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

. MoMA. 22 February 2010

. Retrieved

31 July

2015

State Archive of the Russian Federation, f R7544, op 1, d 78, l 6

Olympedia

. Retrieved

30 July

2020

Encyclopædia Britannica

. Retrieved

27 July

2017

Neutra, Dion (2012). "The Neutras Then & Later(Photography by Julius Shulman".

(I). Triton: Barcelona, Los Angeles.

{{

}}

Cite journal requires

|journal=

(

)

Holleran, Scott. "Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright & Ayn Rand: An Interview with Architect Dion Neutra".

Capitalism Magazine

June 2, 2017.

"Cal Poly Pomona Given Neutra Research House".

Los Angeles Times

. 2 March 1980.

"Architect's Home Given To Cal Poly".

Los Angeles Times

. 18 May 1980.

Lauren Beale (October 14, 2011),

Ho, Vivien (October 21, 2020)

. Retrieved October

25, 2020

(PDF)

Palm Springs Walk of Stars

. Archived from the original on 13 October 2012.

Bernstein, Fred (3 February 2002).

. Retrieved

9 February

2017

Hines, Thomas S. (31 May 2004).

Architectural Digest

. Retrieved

27 April

2021

Peek in the Stacks

. 30 March 2020

. Retrieved

7 April

2020

Vitucci, Claire (18 July 1997).

Los Angeles Times

. Retrieved

8 April

2020

Dunning, Brad (21 April 2002).

. Retrieved

20 April

2017

Stansbury, Amy (9 March 2013).

. Archived from

on 13 March 2013

. Retrieved

31 July

2015

Pridgen, Andrew (17 July 2022).

San Francisco Chronicle

Karnasiewicz, Sarah (25 January 2025).

Wall Street Journal

. Retrieved

26 January

2025

. United States Department of the Interior – National Park

Service. 4 April 1985.

Dineen, J.K. (15 December 2018).

San Francisco

Chronicle

. Retrieved

16 December

2018

. 16 December 2018

. Retrieved

17 December

2018

Jao, Carren (November 21, 2014)

Redfin

. Retrieved

4 June

2020

Leet, Stephen;

(2004).

Richard Neutra's Miller House

. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 191.

Neumann, Dietrich, ed. (2001).

Richard Neutra's Windshield House

. Yale University Press.

Los Angeles Department of City Planning

Wyatt, Edward (31 October 2007).

The New York Times

. Retrieved

24 May

2008

Judith Gura (1 May 2008).

ARTINFO

. Archived from the original on 8 June 2008

. Retrieved

14 May

2008

Friedman, Alice T. (c. 2010). "2. Palm Springs Eternal: Richard Neutra's Kaufmann Desert House".

. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press. p.

. Trianglemodernisthouses.com

. Retrieved

30 July

2015

April 21, 2010, at the

. neutra.org. Archived from

on 17 October 2015

. Retrieved

30 July

2015

Carol Crotta (May 2, 2015),

"Transitions".

Preservation

(1). National Trust for Historic Preservation: 6. January 2012.

landliving.com

. Archived from

on 23 March 2006.

Lavin, Sylvia (2004).

Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture

. MIT Press.

Zara, Janelle (6 April 2020).

Architectural Digest

. Retrieved

7 April

2020

SAHSCC (8 June 2009).

from the original on 12 December 2021

. Retrieved

16 December

2018

– via YouTube.

Hines, Thomas S. (2006).

(4 ed.). Rizzoli. p. 316.

Retrieved

12 August

2021

January 19, 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2011

Eastman, Janet (17 April 2008).

Los Angeles Times

from the original on 24 July 2008

. Retrieved

24 May

2008

Ayyüce, Orhan (17 March 2008).

. archinect.com

. Retrieved

24 May

2008

. NeutraVDL.org

. Retrieved

31 July

2015

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.

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). The MIT Press:

6–

25.

Lamprecht, Barbara (2000).

Richard Neutra: Complete Works

. Taschen. p. 360.

Lamprecht, Barbara (2004).

Richard Neutra, 1892–1970: Survival through Design

. Taschen.

Lavin, Sylvia (2005).

Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture

. MIT Press.

Cronan, Todd (July 2011).

Design and Culture

(2). Berg Publishers:

165–

191.

. Archived from

on 14 July 2014.

Neutra, Dion (2012).

The Neutras Then & Later I (Photography by Julius Shulman)

. Triton: Barcelona, Los Angeles.

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

[

]

Wikimedia Commons has media

related to

Special

Collections.

Special Collections.

23 June 2019 at the

28 May 2018 at the

Finding aid for

, Los Angeles.

Accession No. 2010.M.58. Interviewees include Neutra's family, friends, business associates, clients, and Los

Angeles architects.

Movements

Works

(1913–1927)

(1915)

(1922)

(1924)

(1925)

(1926)

(1928–1940)

(1929)

Works

(1886)

(1887)

(1889)

(1907)

(1909–1910)

(1912)

(1915)

(1920)

(1923)

(1925)

(1927)

(1929)

(1931)

(1936)

(1941)

(1943)

Works

(1888)

(1896)

(1899)

(1902)

(1905)

(1910)

(1912)

(1913)

(1917)

(1921)

(1928)

(1953)

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