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