What Set Him Apart: The Books on Neutra’s Shelves
Modernist architect Richard Neutra (1892 – 1970) is renowned for his sleek, taut form-making. His ubiquitous trademarks include full-height glass walls, flat roofs, silver paint, white walls, bands of identical fenestration, crimped metal fascias, and broad overhangs. Above all, there is his famous “spider leg,” where a long beam stretches out beyond the building envelope, … Continue reading
The Desert Dialogues: Schindler, Neutra, Frey in the Coachella Valley
Greetings, everyone. It’s been a minute since I’ve been on my site and apologies for the lack of images. They are coming! But I wanted to get this online while I get that done. While the two Palm Springs houses designed by Richard Neutra (1892 – 1970) speak as actors on a “moonscape,” as he … Continue reading
LOST: RICHARD NEUTRA’S MID-CENTURY MODERN FENESTRATION by John Blanton
Born January 1, 1928 and raised in Houston, John Arthur Blanton graduated from Rice University, earning a B.A. in 1948 and a B.S. in architecture in 1949. He worked his way up in Richard Neutra’s practice from apprentice to “collaborator,” becoming one of the master’s trusted lead project architects in the so-called “Golden Era” of … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
The Colors of Neutra
The quartet of small houses Richard Neutra designed in 1922 are located on Onkel Tom Strasse in Zehlendorf, a quiet, leafy, well-to-do Berlin suburb. Known as the Adolf Sommerfeld Residences, they were named after the rather eccentric developer who built them. (Sommerfeld proposed, and Neutra drew, a giant revolving turntable with three partitions, containing, for … Continue reading
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