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Male, Austria/US, born 1892-04-08, died 1970-04-16
Associated with the firms network
Architectural Group for Industry and Commerce; Neutra and Alexander, Architects; Neutra and Neutra, Architects; Neutra and Pfisterer; Neutra and Winkler, Associated Architects; Neutra, Richard J., Architect; Southeast Housing Architects, Associated
Résumé
Draftsman, Gustav Ammann, Landscape Architect, Zurich, Switzerland, c. 1919-1921.
Architect, City of Luckenwalde, Luckenwalde, Germany.
Draftsman, Erich Mendelsohn, Munich, Germany, 1921-1922.
Draftsman, Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin Fellowship, Spring Green, WI, 1924.
Neutra collaborated with Rudolph M. Schindler, 1924-1926, Los Angeles, CA.
Partner (with Rudolph Schindler), Architectural Group for Industry and Commerce, Los Angeles, CA, 1926-1927.
Principal, Richard J. Neutra, Architect, Los Angeles, CA, 1928-1949.
Partner, Neutra and Neutra, Architects, Los Angeles, CA, 1950-1970 (residential commissions).
Partner, Neutra and Alexander, Architects, Los Angeles, CA, 1949-1958 (commercial and institutional commissions).
Richard and Dion Neutra and Associates, Los Angeles, CA, 1965-1970. Richard Neutra returned to live in Vienna in 1966, and died in Germany four years later.
In 1965, Neutra formally partnered with his son, architect Dion Neutra as "Richard and Dion Neutra and Associates." In 1966, he moved back to Vienna, Austria. He died in Germany in 1970 while in the middle of an argument with a client, according to grandson Justin, who later made a short film about Neutra.
Teaching
Graduate Course Instructor, University of Southern California (USC), College of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA, 1932.
Neutra lectured widely. He delivered talks at North Carolina State University's School of Design in 1950 and on 12/13/1957.
Professional Activities
Neutra joined the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1930.
Neutra was featured in a 1956 recording called “Conversations Regarding the Future of Architecture,” put out by the Reynolds Metals Company. Other architects speaking on this LP included Gordon Bunshaft (1909-1990), Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), Philip Johnson (1906-2005), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and Ernest Kump, Jr., (1911-1999). The narrator was John Peter (1917-1998).
Professional Awards
The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Building in Los Angeles, CA, won an American Institute of Architects Honor Award in 1952; Honorary Member, Mexican Association of Architects, c. 1946; Honorary Member, Cuban Association of Architects, c. 1946; Honorary Member, Bolivian Association of Architects, c. 1946; Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA), 1947.
Posthumous recipient, Americna Institute of Architects (AIA), Gold Medal, 1977.
Archives
The massive Richard and Dion Neutra Papers collection is housed in the Department of Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Library. This enormous collection included 3192.2 linear feet (663 boxes, 895 oversize boxes, and 379 oversize folders).
College
Graduate, Sophiengymnasium, Vienna, Austria, 1910.
Technische Universität Wien, Technische Hochschule, Wien, Austria, 1910-1918. Neutra was educated with Adolf Loos (1870-1933) and influenced by Otto Wagner (1841-1918) at the Technische Universität Wien. At TU Wien, he also worked with Professors Max Fabiani (1865-1962) and Karl Mayreder (1856-1925).
Relocation
Richard Neutra Immigrated to the United States in 1923 from Austria. He joined his friend and Austrian compatriot Rudolph Schindler in Los Angeles. Neutra developed an internaitonal practice headquartered in Los Angeles's Silver Lake neighborhood.
Parents
His parents were Samuel and Elizabeth Glaser Neutra;
Spouse
He married Dione Niedermann Neutra (b. Austria 04/14/1901-d. Los Angeles County, CA, 09/01/1990) in Hagen, Germany, 12/23/1922;
Children
He and Dione had three sons: Frank, Dion and Raymond; Dion, an architect, became a partner in the residential practice of Richard J. Neutra, c. 1950;
Biographical Notes
In 1912, he took a journey through Italy and the Balkan countries with a classmate at the Technische Hochschule, Vienna, Ernst Ludwig Freud (1892-1970), the fourth child of psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Martha Bernays (1861-1951), who would later become an architect in Germany and England. Freud studied at the Technische Hochschule between 1911 and 1913.
PCAD id: 179
