Two Sister Buildings: America Demolishes the Cyclorama, Pakistan Saves the Embassy
After a well-executed legal battle of 13 years, including a 1998 determination by the National Register of Historic Places of its “exceptional historic and architectural significance,” the Gettysburg Memorial known as the Cyclorama has been demolished by the National Park Service. Dedicated November 19, 1962, demolition of the structure commenced February 18, 2013 with asbestos … Read more
From Brain to Building and Back: Two Conferences on Architecture and Neuroscience
Two conferences on neuroscience and architecture, the first in September and oriented to science, the second in November more weighted in architecture and architectural theory, are a comment itself on the growing recognition of the potential connection between the two disciplines. It’s difficult not to compare the two gatherings. Both venues were seminal works designed … Read more
The Obsolescence of Optimism? Neutra and Alexander’s U.S. Embassy, Karachi, Pakistan
View of the former U.S. Embassy, Karachi, Pakistan. Photo by Lucien Hervé. Source: scanned from Richard Neutra 1961 – 1966, Buildings and Projects, Thames and Hudson. Camera facing southwest. Dedicated to the Honorable John Christopher Stevens, Ambassador of the United States of America: What happens to an outmoded mid-century American embassy? Given the consistently tortured relationship … Read more
Mariners Medical Art Center, Newport Beach, California
Below is my response May 3, 2012, to a proposal that would drastically alter one of Neutra’s best works, Mariners Medical Arts Center. The original project architect was John Blanton, a lead designer in Neutra’s office, an especially gifted designer who while self-effacing, skillfully acquitted Neutra’s intentions. The letter, addressed to the planner in charge … Read more
Endangered Ecstasy: The Connell House, Pebble Beach, Richard Neutra, 1958
The facade simultaneously invites entry but affords privacy, shielding both the house beyond as well as the sweeping views from the cliff down to the sea, views privileged to the owner. Note, too, how Neutra slows your journey to the front door, a strategy he witnessed in Japan. The flawlessly sited 4,124-square-foot 1958 Connell House by … Read more
January 12 Lecture at the Goethe-Institut Chicago: Richard Neutra Bridging American and European Modern Architecture
I lectured on Richard Neutra’s own ‘crossroad’ in America, Chicago, where he arrived “one drizzly morning at the Illinois Central depot” in 1924: Chicago, where Frank Lloyd Wright, Adolf Loos, Louis Sullivan, and Jane Addams all converged in that great city where the American heartland met the steel skyscraper and fell in love … Please … Read more
Is Fallingwater Modern? Not According to the Wall Street Journal
Is Frank Lloyd Wright a Modernist? Is Fallingwater Modern? I was stunned by one part of a short Q-and-A published May 7, 2011 in the Wall Street Journal, titled “What’s So Great About Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater?” It begins, The fabled house Frank Lloyd Wright built for the Kaufmann family over a stream in southwestern … Read more
Is Frank Lloyd Wright a Modernist? Is Fallingwater Modern?
Is Frank Lloyd Wright a Modernist? Is Fallingwater Modern? I was stunned by one part of a short Q-and-A published May 7, 2011 in the Wall Street Journal, titled “What’s So Great About Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater?” It begins, The fabled house Frank Lloyd Wright built for the Kaufmann family over a stream in southwestern … Read more
Dead Man Walking? The Kronish House in Beverly Hills
©barbaralamprecht2011 The Beverly Hills City Council meeting Tuesday, Aug. 2 turned from regular into extraordinary. The meeting began at 7:17, and the room was packed for one agenda item: the proposed ministerial demolition of the Richard Neutra’s Kronish House. After normal city business including city pensions and trees that blocked expensive view corridors, Linda Dishman, … Read more
The Most Beautiful Box: Neutra’s Taylor House, Mies, and the “effect beyond four walls”
©barbaralamprecht2011 The text below is based on a talk I gave on Saturday June 11, 2011, for the Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter, at Richard Neutra’s Maurice and Marceil Taylor House, 1964, in Glendale, California. It was a beautiful day. The full-height glass walls on the north were thrown open so the 40-odd people … Read more
Richard Neutra – Complete Works
