Richard Neutra Architect, US Architecture

Architect Richard Neutra, 20th C Californian Building, Modern Houses USA, Project News, Design Studio

Richard Neutra Architect : Architecture

20th Century American Architecture, United States of America Design Practice

post updated April 5, 2022

Mar 8, 2022
Richard Neutra Hilltop Home, Tujunga, Los Angeles, California, USA
Richard Neutra Hilltop Home Tujunga LA
photo : Cameron Carothers
Richard Neutra Hilltop Home, Tujunga L.A.
Richard Neutra was one of America’s most important modern architects from the 1920s to the 1960s designing famous homes such as the Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs for Edgar J. Kaufmann (who also commissioned Fallingwater in Pennsylvania), the Julian Bond House in San Diego, and the Kronish House in Beverly Hills.

Richard Neutra Desert House For Sale

Nov 30, 2020
Palm Springs’ Historic Desert House, California, USA
Richard Neutra Desert House Palm Springs
photo : Daniel Solomon for Sotheby’s International Realty
Richard Neutra Desert House
Edgar J. Kaufmann made architectural history twice. First, when he hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design his home, Fallingwater, in Pennsylvania in 1935 and again in 1946 when he commissioned Richard Neutra to create his famed Desert House in Palm Springs. After undergoing a five-year restoration by Marmol Radziner, the Desert House is on the market at $25 million.

Richard Neutra Architect – Key Projects

Key Buildings by architect Richard Neutra (1892-1970)

Kaufmann Desert House, Palm Springs, California, USA
Date built: 1946

Kaufmann Desert House, Palm Springs, California, USA, design by Richard Neutra Architect
photo : Barbara Alfors 2000 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], courtesy Wikimedia commons

The Kaufmann House to be auctioned by Christie’s New York in May 2008.
The Kaufmann Desert House is an elegant Modern residence located in Palm Springs.

It was one of the last large-commission domestic projects designed by this architect, but it is also arguably one of his most architecturally noteworthy and famous homes.

It is “one of the most important examples of International style architecture in the United States and the only one still in private hands”.

Lovell House, Los Angeles, California, USA
Date built: 1928

Modernist architect famous for sleek luxurious private houses in southwestern USA.

He was born in Vienna. In 1923 he emigrated to the United States of America.

A key architectural influence: architect Rudolf Schindler

Miller House in Palm Springs, California, USA – design from 1937. This style has come to be known as Desert Modernism:
Miller House in Palm Springs, California, USA, by Richard Neutra
photo : Ilpo's Sojourn [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], courtesy Wikimedia commons

Richard Neutra Buildings

Key architectural designs, chronological:

Lovell House, Los Angeles, California, USA
Date built: 1929

Von Sternberg House, San Fernando Valley, USA
Date built: 1935

Emerson Junior High School, West Los Angeles, California
Date built: 1938

Strathmore Apartments, Westwood, Los Angeles, California
Date built: 1938

Ward-Berger House, Hollywood Hills, California
Date built: 1939

Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, California
Date built: 1946

Moore House, Ojai, California
Date built: 1952

Bond House, San Diego, California
Date built: 1960

R.J. Neutra Elementary, Naval Air Station, Lemoore, California
Date built: 1960, USA

Gettysburg Cyclorama Center, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Date built: 1962 – due for demolition 2008

United States Embassy, Karachi, Pakistan, Asia
Date built: 1963

Kuhns House, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
Date built: 1964

Delcourt House, Croix, Nord, France, western Europe
Dates built: 1968-69

Case Study Houses

The Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House, Los Angeles, California
Dates built: 1932, 1940 ; 1966
Neutra VDL Studio and Residence
photo courtesy Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Studio/residences
The Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House

More buildings online soon

The Moore House won an AIA Award

Location: Vienna, Austria / Los Angeles, California, USA

Architect Practice Information

Architectural Education
Technische Hochschule, Vienna, Austria : 1917
He was taught by architect Adolf Loos

Early Career

He worked for Erich Mendelsohn (1921-22) and in America for Frank Lloyd Wright, and then Rudolf Schindler.

Richard set up his architect practice in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Similar to Ray and Charles Eames, Richard’s architectural partner was Dione, his wife. Later his son Dion worked for the practice.

Richard died back in Europe in Wuppertal, Germany. Richard’s son Dion continued the practice as Richard and Dion Neutra Architecture.

Relevant Architectural Links

Celebrated US 20th Century architecture practices:

Erich Mendelsohn architect

Frank Lloyd Wright architect

Books

Life and Shape (Autobiography)
Richard Neutra
Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962

Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture
Thomas Hines
Oxford University Press, 1982

American architects

Californian Architecture

Philip Johnson Glass House News, New Canaan, Connecticut, USA
Date built: 1949; Architect: Philip Johnson
Noyes House New Canaan mid-century residence
photograph : Michael Biondo
Philip Johnson’s Glass House

Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges, Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Date: 1962, design by architect Eero Saarinen
Renovation + new-build in 2011: KieranTimberlake
Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges Yale University Building Connecticut
image from FD
Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges

American architecture : US buildings

Austrian Architects

Net Zero Energy House, Cupertino, CA, USA
Design: Klopf Architecture
Net Zero Energy House
photo : Mariko Reed
Net Zero Energy House

Architecture Studios

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, USA
Design: Mario Botta / HOK
picture © Andrew McRae
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Comments / photos for the Richard Neutra Architecture – US Desert Modernism page welcome

Website: www.neutra.org