What makes a Neutra a Neutra
How to spot a Richard Neutra house in LA: the spider legs, ribbon windows and reflecting pools, where his houses cluster, and what to ask before buying one.
Richard Neutra designed hundreds of buildings over a career of nearly 50 years, and a good share of them are houses in Los Angeles. Once you know what to look for, you start spotting them: a low glass box on a hillside, a beam running out past the roofline, a shallow pool right up against a window. Here's what defines his work, where to see it, and what to ask if you're ever buying one.
How he got to LA
Neutra was born in Vienna in 1892 and came to the United States in 1923. After a short stint in Frank Lloyd Wright's orbit, he arrived in Los Angeles in 1925 and lived for a time at Rudolph Schindler's Kings Road House in West Hollywood. Within a few years he had the commission that made his name.
The Lovell Health House, built from 1927 to 1929 at 4616 Dundee Drive in Los Feliz, used a light steel frame, assembled quickly on a steep site, with thin concrete walls and long runs of standard windows. It was one of the first steel-frame houses in the country, and it put Neutra on the international map. It's a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and was listed on the National Register in 1971.
The signatures
- Spider legs. Beams that run past the corner of the house and out into the garden, sometimes ending in a post. They make the house look like it extends into the landscape.
- Ribbon windows and glass walls. Long horizontal bands of glass, and later whole walls of sliding glass, set flush so the view runs from room to room.
- Flat roofs with thin edges. Fascias kept as slim as possible, so the roof reads as a single line against the sky.
- Water next to glass. Shallow reflecting pools placed against the house to bounce light onto ceilings and blur the line between inside and out.
- Built-ins. Cabinets, desks, benches and shelving designed as part of the architecture, often in warm wood against white or gray walls.
Neutra called his approach "biorealism," the idea that a house should be designed around how the body and mind respond to light, air and nature. In practice that meant cross-ventilation, deep overhangs to control sun, and a garden that starts where the floor stops. It's the same thinking behind a lot of what we covered in indoor-outdoor living in LA.
Where to see them
The easiest one to visit is his own. The Neutra VDL Studio and Residences at 2300 Silver Lake Boulevard was first built in 1932 and rebuilt in the 1960s with his son Dion. It's owned by Cal Poly Pomona, was designated a National Historic Landmark, and offers student-led tours on many Saturdays, booked online.
From there, the east side of the reservoir in Silver Lake has one of the densest groups of Neutra houses anywhere, including several on a short street now named Neutra Place. Others are scattered across the Westside hills, the Valley and Pasadena. Neutra also designed the Bailey House, Case Study House #20 in Pacific Palisades, covered in our post on the Case Study Houses. Nearly all of these are private homes, so admire them from the street.
If you're buying one
- Find out how original it is. Many Neutra houses have had additions, replaced windows or remodeled kitchens. Original drawings, permits and past sale records help sort out what's his and what came later.
- Check for designation. A Historic-Cultural Monument or a house inside an HPOZ comes with design review for exterior changes. The city's planning department can confirm status for a specific address.
- Bring a specialist inspector. Steel frames, flat roofs, single-pane glass and original radiant heating all deserve a close look from someone who has worked on mid-century houses.
- Look at the site as much as the house. Neutra designed for a specific view, slope and sun angle. What's been built around the lot since then matters.
Our guide to mid-century modern homes covers the wider style and where else to find it.
If a Neutra, or any architect-designed house, is on your wish list, tell me and I'll keep an eye out and pull the permit history on anything that comes up.
General information, not advice. Price figures are estimates from public data and may be out of date.
