Richard Joseph Neutra (April 8, 1892 April 16, 1970) is considered one of modernism's

most important architects.

Neutra was born in Vienna, Austria in 1892. He studied under Adolf Loos, 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. Neutra subsequently opened his own practice in Los Angeles with his wife, Dione.
He was famous for the great attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients, whether
he was commissioned to build a simple house or a mansion. This was in contrast with other
genial architects, who would often do everything to impose their artistic vision on a client,
regardless of what was really needed to create a home. He would sometimes use detailed
questionnaires to find out exactly what the owners would need, much to the surprise of many
of his clients. His domestic architecture was a blend of Art, landscape and practical comfort.
Neutra had a sharp sense of irony. For example in his autobiography, Life and Shape, he
included an 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. In a case of art imitating life, Ayn Rand based part of the character of
Howard Roark in "The Fountainhead" on Neutra (1) and lived - herself - in the Sternberg house
(a photo of Neutra and Rand at the home was famously captured by Julius Shulman).
The revival in the late 90s of mid-century modernism has given new cachet to his work, as it's
become (along with Lautner and Schindler's) trophy property for wide variety of Los Angeles
pop culture, arts and media figures from hair stylist Vidal Sasson and ex-Gucci and YSL head
Tom Ford, actress Kelly Lynch and her screnwriter husband Mitch Glazer to more cutting-edge
personalities such as XL clothing line founder Eli Bonerz and hardcore punk musician
Jonathan Anastas. Prices have topped $4 million for Case Study 20 and $6 million for the
Singleton House (purchased by Mr. Sasson in 2004 - the Singleton house is now back on the
market, post rennovation, at $20 million dollars).
Neutra died in Wuppertal, Germany in 1970.Neutra's son Dion has kept the Silverlake office
open as "Richard and Dion Neutra Architecture" in Los Angeles. The office building itself designed and built by Neutra - is currently on the market for $3.1 million dollars.
Lovell House or the Lovell Health House was a large modernist style residence designed and
built by Richard Neutra between 1927-1929 at 4616 Dundee Drive in Los Angeles, California
for the physician Philip Lovell. The house was a turning point in Neutra's career.
It was the first steel frame house in the United States and also made extensive use of
concrete. Neutra was his own contractor for the project, not being satisfied with the quality of

work from available contractors. The building was added to the list of Registered Historic
Places in Los Angeles in 1971.
Neutra fully exploited the steep hillside site by spreading the house out and making use of
terraced gardens, overflowing with greenery. More than any other domestic architectural
creation, Lovell house showed off his mastery of landscaping. Many pictures of the house
show only the main body, neglecting the gardens, with their concrete retaining walls, and out
buildings, which combine to form a work of Art.[citation needed]
As was the case with other Neutra houses, the interior was both beautiful and cozy. In this
domain, Neutra set himself apart from other genial modernist architects, who all too often put
aesthetic considerations above human comfort. Not surprisingly, Philip Lovell was enchanted
with the house and praised his architect publicly. Lovell had previously commissioned architect
Rudolf Schindler to build the landmark Lovell Beach House in 1926.

The Kaufmann House, or Kaufmann Desert House, in Palm Springs, California, was
designed by Richard Neutra in 1946.It was one of the last domestic projects conducted by the
architect, but it is also arguably one of his most famous homes. the Desert House designed in

1946 for Edgar Kaufmann, set in the hot arid desert surrounding Palm Springs, and two years
later, the Tremaine House in the sweeping, tree-shaded, rock-strewn meadowland of
Montecito. Both have pinwheel plans with the living-dining area at the hub; wings of one-room
depth, designed to obtain natural light with views on at least two exposures, extend outwards
and open to terraces and patios that in turn merge into the rich garden landscape. They
respond quite lyrically to their natural surroundings, without ever compromising their
architectonic integrity.
This five-bedroom, five-bathroom vacation house in Palm Springs, California was designed to
emphasize connection to the desert landscape while offering shelter from harsh climatic
conditions. Large sliding glass walls open the living spaces and master bedroom to adjacent
patios. Major outdoor rooms are enclosed by a row of movable vertical fins that offer flexible
protection against sandstorms and intense heat.
A combined living and dining space, roughly square, lies at the center of the house. While the
house favors an east-west axis, four long perpendicular wings extend in each cardinal direction
from the living areas. Thoughtful placement of larger rooms at the end of each wing helps
define adjacent outdoor rooms, with circulation occurring both indoors and out.
The south wing connects to the public realm and includes a carport and two long covered
walkways. These walkways are separated by a massive stone wall and lead to public and
service entries, respectively. The east wing of the house is connected to the living space by a
north-facing internal gallery and houses a master bedroom suite. To the west, a kitchen,
service spaces, and staff quarters are reached by a covered breezeway. In the northern wing,
another open walkway passes along an exterior patio, leading to two guest rooms.
Currently, the building is not being used as a residential home, neither has it opened as a
museum site open for the public, like similar important homes have been, such as Fallingwater
in Pennsylvania.
In recent years it has been through a full-restoration which has brought it back to its former
condition.Today, most critics place the Kaufman House amongst the 'five most important house
of the 20th century', with the likes of Fallingwater, Robie House, Gropius House and the
Gamble House, all located in the United States
Von Sternberg house was a single bedroom (servant bedrooms excluded) mini-mansion
designed by the architect Richard Neutra. It was built in 1935 in Northridge, California in the
then-rural San Fernando Valley for the movie director Josef von Sternberg. It was demolished
in 1972 to make way for a housing development.Neutra was known as a philosopher of
Modernism in Architecture, and his work as a practitioner was in constant interaction with his
thoughts and writings. Von Sternberg house was one of the most impressive of the
incarnations of this philosophy, along with Lovell house.
In a sense Von Sternberg house was the exact opposite of the McMansions built in ever larger
numbers at the beginning of the 21st century. These so-called mansions usually showed
nothing but a bigger number of rooms and a bigger than average surface area to account for

their inflated price. They were for all practical purposes assembled from identical elements with
no distinguishing features. In contrast Von Sternberg house had a very small number of rooms
and a relatively small surface area which played up its unique design features. While it did
have a few vulgar features of ostentatious display, such as a separate, larger and higher
garage bay for a Rolls-Royce in addition to the two other garage bays for lesser automobiles
(in an era where even rich homes had only one or two garages) most of its characteristics
were original and fairly discrete, showing Neutra's attention for the integration of exquisite
custom details, in a flowing whole.
The exterior look of the house and of its landscaped surroundings was made of sinuous lines,
yet the interiors were handily orthogonal, making furniture placement simple and easy. As in
many others of his domestic designs Neutra made heavy use of well chosen industrial
windows and sidings, using his advanced aesthetic sense to transform their origins and create
artistic design statements which fulfilled practical functions like making privacy screens and
windbreaks.
As ever, Neutra was mindful of his customer's desires even when he found them absurd. He
would later regale his friends with the story (among others) of Von Sternberg asking that none
of the bathroom doors have locks, in order to prevent his party guests from locking themselves
up in there and threatening to commit suicide. As a movie director Sternberg was well
acquainted with the all too often theatrical behavior of many Hollywood actors, while Neutra
had a social life which kept him in touch with artists in other domains.
In the 1940s novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand bought the house at 10,000 Tampa Avenue in the
San Fernando Valley (Chatsworth). Concerned by the thirteen acre ranch's twenty-mile
distance from Hollywood, where she worked as a screen writer, Rand and her husband actor
Frank O'Connor paid twenty-four thousand dollars for the house. In 1963, according to Rand
biographer Barbara Branden, Ayn and Frank sold the house for one hundred and seventy-five
thousand dollars. (Branden, The Passion of Ayn Rand, p. 186)
Neutra created a modern regionalism for Southern California which combined a light metal
frame with a stucco finish to create a light effortless appearance. "He specialized in extending
architectural space into a carefully arranged landscape. The dramatic images of flat-surfaced,
industrialized residential buildings contrasted against nature were popularized by the
photography of Julius Shulman."
An experienced and outspoken writer and speaker, Neutra worked with a series of successful
partners including his wife, Dione, from 1922, his protege, Robert Alexander, from 1949-58 and
his son, Dion, from 1965. He adamantly believed that modern architecture must act as an
social force in the betterment of mankind. Neutra believed that the architect should strive for a
response to space and time that may be only fleeting, yet in its intensity becomes truly
memorable. Both houses have such: a chance reflection in the pool, or glass in shadow; the
roof hovering above the sunset, or the rustle of leaves.