(3/13/08 Loz Feliz branch library) Presentation about the house and Richard Neutra by:
- Architect and professor Sarah Lorenzen (director of Neutra VDL, lives in the garden house)
- Architectural historian and Neutra archivist Lauren Brickner (prof. of arch. at Cal Poly Pomona )
- Architect and Richard Neutra’s son Dion Neutra (helped restore house after 1963 fire)
Links:
- Richard and Dion Neutra Architecture
- Richard Neutra Wikipedia article
- Neutra VDL Studio and Residences open 11am-3pm, Saturdays
VDL House:
- built in 1932 on east bay of the Silverlake Reservoir (2300 Silverlake Blvd), which has since been filled in
- shows three phases of Neutra’s work: International Style phase (main house), more open architecture (garden house), and reflective phase (mirrors, glass, nature)
- Dion lived downed the street when the house caught fire. Went to the scene and tried to save what he could—saved some important papers, plans, business info., etc. His parents were on a trip. He called his mom to tell her, but she didn’t tell her Neutra until the end of the trip. After he returned, he was ready to give it up. The city of Los Angeles even wanted to demolish is as structurally unsound. But they were able to rebuild (using same foundation and height constraints, which saved some red tape).
- On rebuild the flat roof, which can be seen from upper deck, is covered with water (over coal tar pitch). Dion points out this makes a difference, depending on your angle of the view, what water you are seeing—the roof or the Reservoir—and at a certain angle they blend into one.
Richard Neutra:
Born in Vienna. While there studied under Adolf Loos (Steiner house, Ornament and Crime), worked with Erich Mendelsohn (Einstein Tower, image below from Wikipedia),
and became familiar with Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. Was also friends with R.M. Schindler who came to Los Angeles before Neutra (who got caught in WWI) and worked for a time with Frank Lloyd Wright. Schindler supervised the Wright’s Hollyhock House project (Barnsdall Park) since Wright was busy with a project in Japan at the time. (Note: showed image of Hollyhock House interior: fireplace with skylight surrounded by little moat—fire, light, water.)
Schindler built his house on Kings Road in Los Angeles. Large sliding glass doors blur lines between inside and outside. Walls of cement (unusual). Neutra and wife lived there for a time after first moving to Los Angeles.
1927—Lovell Health House gained Neutra recognition; first steel frame house in U.S.; he liked to set project into site not on top of it
Presentation concluding with the next generation of architects trained and/or inspired by Neutra, such as Gregory Ain (Dunsmuir Flats) and some others