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Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, California. (Photo taken 2000.)

Richard Joseph Neutra (April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) is considered one of modernism's most important architects.

Neutra was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1892. He studied under Adolf Loos, was influenced by Otto Wagner, and worked for a time in Germany in the studio of Erich Mendelsohn. He moved to the United States by 1923 and became a naturalized citizen in 1929. Neutra worked briefly for Frank Lloyd Wright before accepting an invitation from his close friend and university companion Rudolf Schindler to work and live communally in Schindler's Kings Road House in California. Neutra subsequently opened his own practice in Los Angeles with his son, Dion. He was famous for the great attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients, whether he was commissioned to build a simple house or a mansion. This was in contrast with other general architects, who would often do everything to impose their artistic vision on a client, regardless of what was really needed to create a home. He would sometimes use detailed questionnaires to find out exactly what the owners would need, much to the surprise of many of his clients. His domestic architecture was a blend of art, landscape and practical comfort.

The Treetops House

Neutra had a sharp sense of irony. For example, in his autobiography, Life and Shape, he included an anecdote about an anonymous movie producer-client who electrified the moat around the house that Neutra designed for him and had his Persian butler fish out the bodies in the morning and dispose of them in a specially designed incinerator. This was a much-embellished account of an actual client, Josef von Sternberg, who indeed had a moated house but not an electrified one. In a case of art imitating life, Ayn Rand based part of the character of Howard Roark in The Fountainhead on Neutra and lived - herself - in the Sternberg house. (A photo of Neutra and Rand at the home was famously captured by Julius Shulman.)

The revival in the late 90s of mid-century modernism has given new cachet to his work, as it's become (along with Lautner and Schindler's) trophy property for wide variety of Los Angeles pop culture, arts and media figures from hair stylist Vidal Sassoon and ex-Gucci and YSL head Tom Ford, actress Kelly Lynch and her screenwriter husband Mitch Glazer to more cutting-edge personalities such as XL clothing line founder Eli Bonerz and hardcore punk musician Jonathan Anastas. Prices have topped $4 million for Case Study 20 and $6 million for the Singleton House (purchased by Mr. Sasson in 2004 - the Singleton house is now back on the market, post renovation, at $20 million dollars).

Neutra died in Wuppertal, Germany, in 1970.

Neutra's son Dion has kept the Silverlake office open as "Richard and Dion Neutra Architecture" in Los Angeles. The office building itself - designed and built by Neutra - is currently on the market for $3.1 million dollars.

• Lovell House, 1929, Los Angeles, California
• Von Sternberg House, 1935, San Fernando Valley
• Van der Leeuw House, also VDL I Reserach House, also Neutra House, 1932, Los Angeles, California{ [1]
• Windshield House, 1938, Fisher's Island, New York
• Emerson Junior High School, 1938, West Los Angeles, California
• Strathmore Apartments, 1938, Westwood, Los Angeles, California
• Ward-Berger House, 1939, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California
• Bonnet House, 1941, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California
• Kaufmann Desert House, 1946, Palm Springs, California
• Moore House, 1952, Ojai, California (received AIA award) [2]
• Bond House, 1960, San Diego, California
• R.J. Neutra Elementary, 1960, Naval Air Station Lemoore, in Lemoore, California (designed in 1929).
• Gettysburg Cyclorama Center, 1962, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
• United States Embassy, 1963, Karachi, Pakistan
• Kuhns House, 1964, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
• Van der Leeuw House II, also VDL II Reserach House, also Neutra House, 1964,(rebuild with son Dion Neutra Los Angeles, California{ [3]
• Delcourt House, 1968-1969, Croix, Nord, France
• Case Study House programs

• Hines, Thomas. Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture.. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
• Neutra, Richard Joseph. Life and Shape. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962.

• Rand Biographical information, as documented on the Rand.org website and in the Shulman photographed meeting of Neutra and Rand at the Sternberg House, which Rand purchased in 1944.

• http://www.neutra.org/
• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888091,00.html
• http://www.socalhistory.org/Biographies/neutra.htm
• http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Richard_Neutra.html
• http://davidszondy.com/future/city/neutra.htm
• http://www.isdesignet.com/Magazine/J_F'01/cover.html
• http://www.modernsandiego.com/RichardNeutra.html
• http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/shulman/architects/neutra/projects2.html
• http://www.houseind.com/index.php?page=showfont&id=18
• Troxell Residence (LandLiving.com)
• Winkens.ie (Info from the Winkens family with photos)
• http://www.neutravdl.org (history, plans and photographs of the VDL I & VDL II Research Houses