Neutra’s VDL House Named National Landmark

Good news for all of you Richard Neutra nuts. The modern master’s studio and residence in Silver Lake in Los Angeles was just named a National Historic Landmark. “The Neutra Studio and Residences (VDL Research House) in Los Angeles, California, is associated with Richard Neutra, a nationally and internationally seminal figure of the twentieth century Modern movement in architecture, ” said the U.S. Department of the Interior’s announcement. “During the 1940s, as Neutra’s work evolved, he also became the well-recognized founder of mid-century ‘California Modern’ architecture. The VDL Research House is the only property where one can see the progression of his style over a period of years and is among the key properties to understanding the national significance of Richard Neutra.” The current home was rebuilt by Neutra and his architect son, Dion, in the 1960s after the original house was destroyed by fire. Neutra founded his firm in 1926 while he was still living in his friend, Rudolph Schindler’s, house, which Schindler designed in 1922.
Just to note: D.C.’s one and only Neutra-designed house is the 1968 house (see below) for Ann and Donald Brown. He designed it in mere minutes once he saw the wooded lot overlooking Rock Creek Park.

Here are a few photos of Neutra’s VDL Research House.
The front of the Neutra VDL Research House II. It is located at 2300 Silver Lake Blvd.
Neutra numbers.
The second-floor library/den.
The stairwell and second floor.
Nice windows in the kitchen.
One of the small but well-designed bedrooms.
The 1940 Garden house in the backyard was spared Read More >

Neutra’s Rice House Renovated

Work on Richard Neutra’s Rice House in Richmond is now complete and available for retreats and private events. You can see the recent Richmond Times Dispatch story and slideshow here. (Here’s a slideshow of images I took during a fall 2009 tour of the house before the work was started.) The exterior of 1964 home designed for Ambassador Walter Rice, a top Reynolds Metals Corp. executive, and his wife, Inger, a native of Denmark, can be seen as part of monthly tours of the oasis where the home is located: a man-made 12-acre island overlooking Williams Dam. The only International Style home in Richmond, the Rice House is perched 110-feet above the James River. The 6,000 square foot house is made of marble from Georgia and is stretched out along a granite ridge running parallel to the river. Walter (who died in 1998) and Inger Rice, who still lives in Richmond, donated the home to the Science Museum of Virginia Foundation in the 1996. You can read more about the history of the house in the nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

Celebrating the Neutra Practice’s 85th Anniversary

If you will be in LA this coming weekend, you may want to include on your agenda a stop at the Neutra VDL Research House in Silver Lake for a tour and festivities to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the Neutra Practice (Richard and son Dion). Here’s a note I received from Dion, who worked with his father to rebuild the family home in the 1960s after the original house was destroyed by fire.
“Join us to celebrate ‘Neutra Practice at 85 weekend’ April 8-10, 2011. Richard Neutra founded this firm in 1926 while he was still living in the Schindler House. Shortly thereafter, came the birth of his second son, Dion. At about this time, he was working on his first major project, the Jardinette Apartments (1927) in Hollywood. A couple of years later, [he designed] the Lovell Health House (1929). After a distinguished 40 years, his architect son joined as partner and vice president in 1965. Dion has carried on the firm since his father’s death in 1970. … This is what we celebrate on this occasion. Join us!”
During my recent trip to LA, I stopped at the Neutra House for a tour and some photo taking. Here are a few shots:
The front of the Neutra VDL Research House II. It is located at 2300 Silver Lake Blvd.
Neutra numbers.
The second-floor library/den.
The stairwell and second floor.
Nice windows in the kitchen.
One of the small but well-designed bedrooms.
The 1940 Garden house in the backyard was spared from the fire.
The penthouse solarium.
View of Silver Lake Reservoir from rooftop balcony.

Tour of Richard Neutra’s Rice House in Richmond

Here’s a slideshow of images I took during the tour of Neutra’s Rice House in Richmond hosted by Modern Richmond. Located here, the 1964 house was designed by Richard Neutra for Ambassador Walter Rice, a top Reynolds Metals Corp. executive, and his wife, Inger, a native of Denmark who still lives in Richmond. The only International Style home in Richmond, the house is perched 110-feet above the James River on a man-made 12-acre island overlooking Williams Dam.

Patrick Farley, a Richmond-based architect who led the tour, said the Rices wanted to build a house that was very different from the typical “Williamsburg-style” homes in Richmond. The 6,000 square foot house is made of marble from Georgia and is stretched out along a granite ridge running parallel to the river. Farley said once the Rices convinced Neutra to actually come to Richmond to the site, Neutra, taking in the view of the river, said the site was the most beautiful in the world and decided to take a rare commission on the East Coast. The Rices donated the home to the Science Museum of Virginia Foundation in the 1996, which is currently examining how best to restore and care for the home. Read more about the history of the house in the nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

As always, just a reminder that we have our own Neutra-designed home here in D.C.
Neutra designed the 1968 house for Ann and Donald Brown in a mere minutes once he saw the Read More >

Richmond Road Trip: Neutra’s Rice House

Richard Neutra’s Rice House

The folks at Modern Richmond are inviting the modernists of D.C. down I-95 on Saturday, Sept. 26 for tours of the 1965 Rice House, designed by Richard Neutra for Ambassador Walter Rice, a top Reynolds Metals Corp. executive, and his wife, Inger. The only International Style home in Richmond, the Rice House is perched on a man-made island overlooking Williams Dam on the James River. The Rices donated the home to the Science Museum of Virginia Foundation in the 1996.
Tours will be held between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. beginning on the hour. The tour costs $20. All proceeds from the event will benefit the museum. A catered cocktail party with live music will be held between 6 t0 8 p.m. and costs $50. A combined tour and party ticket is $60. See flyer here for more details and contact info. Read more about the history of the house in the nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

If you head to Richmond, here is a good piece on some of the city’s other modernist sites. Also, if you are making a day of it, drive through Charles Goodman’s Highland Hills and see Goodman’s Alcoa Care-Free Home as I did here.

I plan on heading down for one of the earlier tours. If others plan to go, let me know. Maybe we can gather up a D.C. contingent for the trip south.

Update: I was remiss in not mentioning Read More >

Event: Pope-Leighy House Lecture on Frank Lloyd Wright

On Sept. 17, the Frank Lloyd Wright Pope-Leighey House in Alexandria will host an evening lecture about the architect by Thomas Schmidt, director emeritus of another Wright home you may have heard of–Fallingwater. The event will be held at 7 p.m. and will feature an interactive discussion, wine bar and hors d’oeuvres for a $50 donation. Click here for all the details and how to RSVP. There is limited space so RSVP now if you are interested.

Speaking of Fallingwater, which was built by Wright for Edgar Kaufmann. Check out this upcoming exhibit in Pittsburgh of the iconic photographs of Palm Springs by the late Julius Shulman. The exhibit, which begins Sept. 19, will include renderings of the Kaufmann House by Richard Neutra.

Modern Capital’s Letter on Dwell’s D.C. ‘Detour’

I just received the new issue of Dwell, which contains a letter to the editor I wrote in response to the magazine’s “Detour” piece on D.C. that ran in the December/January issue. At the time, I wrote that I was surprised to see that the modernist enclave of Southwest was not mentioned in the piece. Hats off to Dwell for running the letter and including the blog’s URL.
As someone who blogs about Washington, D.C.’s modern architecture (moderncapital.blogspot.com), I was excited to see the December/January 2009 “Detour” article. While the piece touched on Richard Neutra’s Brown House, Gordon Bunshaft’s Hirshhorn Museum and I.M. Pei’s Slayton House, you overlooked a major part of the D.C. story: the mid-century modern enclave of Southwest Washington.
As the area goes through another period of urban renewal, Southwest remains the largest urban-renewal project in U.S. history. The efforts in the 1950s and ’60s to create a “modernist Utopia” led to structures by leading modernist architects, such as Chloethiel Woodard Smith, Charles Goodman, Morris Lapidus, Marcel Breuer, Harry Weese and the team of Arthur Keyes, Francis Donald Lethbridge and David Condon.
In his excellent AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C., G. Martin Moeller Jr. (your featured expert) writes that while many urban renewal projects have “come to symbolize indiscriminate destruction of neighborhoods (squalid though they may have been) in favor of drab, soulless superblocks … much of the redevelopment in the Southwest quadrant was of unusually high quality, avoiding the pitfalls that plagued many Read More >

Dwell Does D.C. and Baltimore

There’s an interesting piece about D.C. in the latest Dwell. Highlighted in its Detour column, Washington is described as “not all political wonks and Masonic conspiracies: It’s also a highly walkable city, its diagonal avenues wide open to modern design.” That’s great, but the piece, which is mainly an interview with Martin Moeller, senior vice president and curator at the National Building Museum, barely delves into the mid-century modern and modern architecture of the city. There’s only passing reference to the Hirshhorn Museum by Gordon Bunshaft, Richard Neutra Brown House, I.M. Pei’s Slayton House (on the market now for $3.45 million; it was originally listed at $4.25 million) and National Gallery East Wing. How can Dwell do a piece like this and not even mention Southwest?
The same issue has another piece of local interest. The Washington Post’s Phillip Kennicott features Marcel Breuer’s Hooper House II near Baltimore. The flat-roof home made of massive fieldstone walls and glass is only one of four residences designed by the architect in Maryland, including one located in Bethesda. More on that later.

Post Explores the Meaning in Moderism for a Traditional Town

The Brown House by Richard Neutra, 1968
For those of you at the beach who may have missed the Post‘s Saturday Real Estate section, the paper ran a piece exploring the meaning in modernism in a town “best known for its Colonials and Victorians.” The paper talked to the owners of three modernist houses in the city “about how modernism reflects and influences their lifestyles.” Simon Jacobsen, the son of Hugh Newell Jacobsen, talks about growing up in the 1860s Italianate rowhouse that his father turned into a modernist haven for furniture by the likes of Mies van de Rohe. Architect Travis Price discusses his modern treehouse built in the heart of Rock Creek Park. ( It can be yours for $3.5 million.) We also get to hear from Ann and Donald Brown, who just happen to own the only Richard Neutra-designed home in Washington (pictured above). Neutra designed the home for the couple 40 years ago, planning the house in a few minutes once he saw the wooded lot overlooking Rock Creek Park. The 1968 home, which I mentioned here a year ago, “is designed as a series of glass- and redwood-covered steel platforms that heavily borrow from the landscape.”

Case Study House Drawings and Images from the Pages of Arts and Architecture

John Entenza, editor and publisher of Arts and Architecture magazine from 1940 to 1960, used the pages of the magazine to launch the Case Study House Program. He sought, according to the January 1945 announcement of the program, to spur new thinking in the design of contemporary post-war “dwelling units.” A & A has now uploaded to the Web copies of the articles on the houses created through the program. See the drawings and images of the homes built by the leading mid-century modern architects: Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, Pierre Koenig, Richard Neutra among others. Click on the casehouses tab at the top.

ArchitectureDC on I.M. Pei, Neutra and Goodman Homes in D.C.

When I was looking for information on the D.C. “Case Study House,” I came across this Summer 2003 issue of ArchitectureDC, a publication of the Washington chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Not only does it have a short item on that house, but an interesting article (beginning on page 7 of the issue) on the 1962 I.M Pei-designed Slayton House located in Cleveland Park. The magazine also has short items (page 14) on the 1968 Brown House by Richard Neutra in the Van Ness area and one on Charles Goodman’s 1960s aluminum-infused River Park townhomes, which are located on 4th St., SW, between N and O streets.