Though no two Neutra's are alike, they share the architect's signatures, notably
unadorned, rectangular slab construction, a flat roof and strong horizontal orientation.
This and the visual projection of both strength and airiness, produced in part by
Neutra's skillful exploitation of new materials; specifically, steel and concrete. And
whether it was the Leighton Cocktail Bar in downtown Los Angeles or the U.S. Embassy
in Karachi—every Neutra project shares a singular premise: to serve its inhabitants'
need for more ease and functionality in the everyday business of living, working
and relaxing.
STA RT W I T H T H E H U M A N B E I N G …
It's fitting that Neutra's middle son, Dion, was born in Los Angeles, and in 1926, just a
few years before the Lovell Health House would forever shift his father's career into high
gear. A photo shows the young boy sitting next to his glamorously attired mother Dione
at the famous Schindler House, where the Neutra family then-lived with architect R.M.
Schindler, a friend of Richard's from their student days in Austria.
Many decades later, Dion, also an architect, continues in the approach schooled into
him by a father who had him working the drafting board at age 11. He became an
architect by 1950 and was later elevated to the stature of full partner when in the 1960s
the firm was re-christened to Richard & Dion Neutra, Architects and Associates. "We
always start with the human being as the factor that we're concerned about," says
Dion, sitting at a sunlit table in his Silver Lake residence, The Reunion House, which was
designed by his father in 1949. "We try to think about how best we can serve the person
that's going to occupy these premises, and make them most productive and all those
sorts of things. That's always driven our thinking."
It was certainly on his mind in 1970, when he was in the midst of negotiating a
commission for the Huntington Beach Public Library. "We were interviewed for this
as a firm in the late '60s, and selected from a long list of candidates," recalls Dion.
"I'm negotiating the contract and my dad was on a lecture trip in Europe at the time—
he then had a heart attack and died right in the middle of the process."
VO N S T E R N B E RG H O U S E
1936 Von Sternberg House, Los Angeles, 1947. Richard Neutra, seated, left and Ayn Rand, standing, right. Photographer, Julius Shulman.© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)
D I O N N E U T R A , S O N A N D PA RT N E R O F T H E L AT E R I C H A R D N E U T R A ,
P H OTO G R A P H E D AT T H E R E U N I O N H O U S E , S I LV E R L A K E
A R C H I T E C T U R A L P R O F I L E
O N N E U T R A
